Querweg photo dump 8: Steisslingen to Ueberlingen

Tuesday May 24

Our original plan had been to ditch the Querweg at Wallhausen and take a ferry across to Ueberlingen, where we'd meet up with Stefan.

The most interesting section of this last stage of the Querweg is purportedly the Marienschlucht, but most of the gorge was still closed following a deadly landslide in 2015. On top of that, the weather forecast was sketchy; hiking in the rain would have been fine had our end destination been a hotel with a hot shower, but the thought of being wet on a 3-hour car ride home did not appeal to us. 

Consequently, we decided on Monday evening to scrap our original plan and instead to walk around the northwest finger of the lake all the way to Ueberlingen, in order to enjoy the change of scenery--and the opportunities for shelter--offered by the towns along the shore.

On Tuesday morning, we headed out of Steisslingen...

...over the hills...

...to Wahlwies...

...through flat agricultural fields with abundant fruit trees...

...and veggies...

...to Espasingen, where we tanked up on field-fresh strawberries.

Our map showed that we were quite close to the Bodensee, but despite the flat terrain along this part of the shore, it took a long time for the lake to finally come into view, given all the fruit trees. Finally, on the outer edge of Ludwigshafen, we had our first glimpse.

We paused to enjoy the view.

Looking across the lake above Bodman, we could see the Altbodman ruins.

We headed through Ludwigshafen...

...past the fabulous sculpture Yolanda by Miriam Lenk.

After a quick stop for lunch, we continued through Ludwigshafen...

Perchten are apparently a family affair...

...and then followed the lakeside trails up over Sipplingen...

...and eventually...

...into...

Lakeside sundial wasn't working, due to clouds

...Ueberlingen.

Mission accomplished!

Stefan picked us up in Ueberlingen and didn't mind that Elias and I both fell asleep in the car on the drive back to Steinebach.

Ta da! 16.5 miles on day 8, out of 124 miles total.