Feeding German monkeys

Have you already heard of Affenberg, the “mountain of monkeys”? You can find it in Salem, a few kilometers away from Lake Constance. Affenberg: that is an open-air enclosure where Barbary apes are living. At the entrance visitors can get special popcorn to feed the apes with!

Next to the outdoor enclosure there are some barns where you can buy souvenirs and drinks and snacks are also offered. Additionally, there is a bigger playground.

Most children love it to go there…

At Affenberg you can also watch some stork`s nests. Storks and apes: great place!

If you are a Lake Constance tourist attended by children you shouldn`t miss to go there with your children!

Reading about Lake Constance

Unfortunately, there are just a few tourist guides about Lake Constance that are written in English (like “Journey around Lake Constance”). Most of them are published in German only. (But just to say: often those German guide books aren`t that helpful, too.)
But there are several guides to Germany that introduce the whole country, including the Lake Constance area.

You speak German? Let me tell you that “DuMont`s Reiseführer Bodensee im Taschenbuch-Format” is one of the best and most informative guide books.
It doesn`t matter if you don`t live in Germany. All the books can be bought at bol.de where deliveries to some foreign countries (like Great Britain, the USA or Canada) are possible, too.

Reading at Lake Constance

Do you know public bookshelves? Around Lake Constance you can find some of them. Public bookshelves are like outdoor libraries without staff. Okay, that sounds strange. So how does it work?

Swimming at Lake Constance: simple thing

You want to know if you can swim in the lake? Of course you can! Lake Constance is just a lake, this isn`t a dangerous sea full of sharks. In contrary: there is not one shark! The only place at Lake Constance where you are able to face sharks is Sea Life Konstanz.

Around Lake Constance there are many bigger lidos where you have to pay an entrance fee. (If you are the proud owner of a “Bodensee Erlebniskarte” [Lake Constance Experience Card] you can visit some of them for free.]

Not to forget: sun protection!

I am loving the products of “SunDance”. That is one of the home brands of the German retail chain “dm”. dm - that is a chemist resp. a drugstore. (Attention: regular pharmaceuticals can only be bought in pharmacies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland although in Switzerland there you can find some drugstore-pharmacy-combinations, too!)

“Rossmann” (at Lake Constance only in Radolfszell in Germany) and “dm” (there is no “dm”-market in Switzerland and the Austrian “dm”-markets are a little bit in the hinterland so that there are “dm”s only at the German side of Lake Constance, too: for example in Konstanz, Überlingen, Friedrichshafen, Radolfzell) are the most popular chemists. Well, so “Sundance” is an own brand of “dm”. “Sundance” contains just products (~ 2-5€) referring to solar protection.

The products are very low in price but the quality is outstanding! I often buy products from “Sundance” when I`m in Germany and as a said: I love them. Last year I tried some sun blocker from “Aldi”, the discount store: the products from there were also cheap and good.

Weather as usual: which kind of clothes to take with?

From spring to autumn Lake Constance is a very popular tourist attraction. Many people even compare it to the Italian Riviera, due to the similar climate. During winter the weather is cold, cloudy and foggy but in the summer time it`s really lovely. Of course, sometimes there are also still rainy days but the sun is definitely on the march!

For some more precise information about the weather at Lake Constance, please click here: Lake Constance`s weather conditions.

I need which currency at Lake Constance?

photo source: Dieter Schütz / pixelio.de

The currency of Germany and Austria is €uro, the currency of Switzerland is Swiss franc. Lake Constance is surrounded by Switzerland, Germany and Austria: do you need two different currencies when you go there? No… of course it`s easier to pay in €uro when you are in Germany or Austria and to pay with Swiss francs when you are in Switzerland. But most attractions around there accept both so you only need some peanuts for such things like snacks and drinks because at smaller kiosks and stores only the currency of their respective countries is being accepted. But you don`t need two big wallets!