Konstanz, where all of Switzerland goes to shop

We're kicking off our week-long vacation with a two-night stop in Konstanz, Germany. And locals might find that odd, because, in terms of distance, its the equivalent of spending two nights in a hotel in Tacoma, if you happen to be from Seattle.  Konstanz is just slightly less than an hour from our home.

But, also in terms of distance, our whole vacation isn't taking us any farther than Portland is from Seattle: we'll slowly creep across Germany, driving no more than an hour at a stretch, ending in Munich, and from there we'll make our big push home on our last day: a whopping three hour drive.

But it all makes sense, I swear. There's this whole collection of things between Zürich and Munich that are tricky to get to by train and so would make for inconvenient day trips, car-less as we are.  So we decided to rent a car and enjoy them all in one easy trip...and then celebrate our cleverness in a München Biergarten at the end.

And besides, a vacation with very little driving...well, that just sounds so much more like a vacation, to me.

Since we didn't have far to go, we could take it easy this morning, slowly gathering this and that for the trip. Not wanting to bring everything out to the car in the torrential rain that was falling had something to do with our slow pace, too. 

Away we go: helping Daddy load the car when the rain let up.

When we pulled off the highway to Konstanz, there was a long line of Swiss cars queued up for our exit, and there was an even longer line in the opposite direction, waiting in line for customs to return to Switzerland.  Because of the strong franc and the advantage of tax-free shopping in Germany, Konstanz is an extremely popular place for the Swiss to shop.  There are long, long threads on the ex-pat message boards, discussing which stores to visit and how much of any given thing you're allowed to bring back, tax-free, to Switzerland.  Since it's so close, and since food is devilishly expensive in Switzerland, some of the more ambitious Swiss residents will even go to Konstanz for their grocery runs.  But that's only helpful if you don't plan on purchasing more than five liters of milk or a half-kilo of meat...there's a whole itemized list of how much of any given foodstuff you're allowed to buy.

Unfortunately, we went to Konstanz on a Saturday, the most popular shopping day of the week. When you enter the city center, there's an electronic board listing all different parking garages and how many spaces are available in each: every garage was completely full but one, and that one had a single free spot.  And so there was a long line of cars at the entrance of each garage, waiting their turn to enter.  Have I mentioned that I haven't missed driving at all?

The whole city had a last-weekend-before-Christmas vibe, with the streets crammed with people laden with bags or pushing strollers containing unhappy children, rushing around the shops and malls.  There were many, many places to spend your money.

Dennis apparently didn't quite kick the cold that he was nursing last week, so we gently eased ourselves into the throngs.  We had a late lunch at a little pizzaria, where Alex turned his nose up at the spaghetti carbonara because it didn't taste like Mom's (I found it hard to be mad at him). And then we went back to the hotel so that Dennis could have a catnap.

Back when we were making our reservations, we managed, miraculously, to find an affordable hotel in Europe with beds for five.  Ella and Joey are sleeping in an off-set bedroom together, and Ella discovered that, if you open the door to the closet and the bedroom, they cordon off a perfect little hiding place.  And, thus, a club was born.

While Dennis slept, I eavesdropped on the kids, sorting out their newest club.  Ella declared herself President and Chief Lookout.  Alex, she decided, could be Vice President and Secretary, since his reading and writing skills are coming along nicely.  And Joey was named Treasurer.  When Joey was informed of his post, he was very enthusiastic: "Treasure? Yarrr! I Pirate!"

Once all that was sorted out, they continued with pressing business: the President declared that the aim of the club was to collect and stockpile as many candies and sweets as possible.

The Chief Lookout wasn't doing her job

It was entered into the minutes that each of them had acquired three additional candies from the hotel candy dish, as well as one cookie each, baked by Daddy and given to them upon reaching the hotel room. "Okay, guys, let's get down to business," guided Ella, "Who can think of a way to get more candy?"


But no one had any brilliant ideas, so they moved on to "Other Business," namely, determining a password and a secret knock.  I can tell you the password (Ice Cream) and the knock (Shave-and-a-Haircut), but I also overheard that these will be changed again in twenty-four hours, so, if you plan to infiltrate,  I don't know how far they'll get you.

We left the hotel at about five, but we'd eaten so much at lunch that no one was hungry, and so we instead entered the crush of shoppers.  Everyone but Dennis needed good winter coats, and they're appallingly expensive in Switzerland: we thought we'd give Konstanz a try.

It actually did end up being a wonderful deal: the prices were about half what we would have paid in Zürich.  And I'm now the happy owner of down parka. I'll never be cold again.

Feeling warmer, we walked around the pedestrian zone and picked up snacks for the kids  (bread, smoothies, and vivid blue ice cream for dinner) before returning to the hotel for card games and bedtime stories.

The kids would say that this vacation is off to an excellent start.