Headed south Saturday afternoon to a town on the border between Germany and Switzerland, called Konstanz.  It was a relatively short drive and the town itself is a nice one.  It's built on the Rhine river and also Lake Constance.  It was pretty neat to just walk around and see all the places that you see online all the time.  I saw the "beach" where you could swim in a controlled part of the river.  Overall it was a "typical" German town that I've seen quite a few times already.  Has a shopping district and many squares where there are quite a few restaurants and places for people to sit and drink as well.  I did visit the "port" of Konstanz which has a famous statue adorning the entrance.  While researching the town, I did find out a few interesting things.  In WWII, the allies did not bomb this town as it was too close to the border of Switzerland.  The town would also illuminate the town's lights at night to confuse the pilots to have them think it was part of Switzerland.  Hence, the town was unscathed.

The second part of the day led me to Burg Madgeburg.  This is a castle ruin dating back to the 13th century.  I saw this ruin several times during my time driving around and decided to find it.  I drove on some "questionable" roads to get to the base of the mountain it was sitting on and parked.  I finally was dressed appropriately for hiking and mountain climbing as I had on my trusty hiking boots and jeans.  The trail was very rocky as it was a mountaintop and overgrown with a lot of trees, bushes, shrubs and all other sorts of growth.  I made it after about a 45 minute hike and climb and was rewarded with quite possible one of the most impressive ruins I've seen.  It wasn't the largest or best kept, which I think was part of my appreciation for it, but it had personality to it and gave me quite a few incredible photos.  I'll be adding the pics in my Castle Exploration section and I hope you'll appreciate these too. 

The day was overall a good day.  It was hotter than I liked but it was very nice to see some of these sights.  So until our next adventure...

Bill out