As planned, we decided to take our first full day of rest. We waved goodbye to our UK friends as they packed up to head upstream. We walked to the grocery store to find something for breakfast and sat out on a bench to eat. The sun was out again today, so it felt good to soak up the sun. I picked out some yogurt and some kind of honey-waffle crackers to use as my spoon. The food selections at the grocery store are quite different here. I don’t know how much is influenced by the fact that we are in Europe, or whether it is more because we are in small town stores. It will be interesting to compare when we get to some larger cities.
We walked upstream about a mile along the Rhine to the town of Stein am Rhein (German spelling of Rhine). It is said to be one of the best preserved medieval towns in Switzerland. The buildings are truly remarkable and covered with detailed fresco paintings. Inside the buildings are some of the original walls and stone floors. It reminded me a lot of the old buildings in Italy. We were able to walk through the old St. Georgen Abby, including the old wood-framed building where the monks presumably made their wine. As with many of these old towns, a castle, Hohenklingen, was perched on the hills above the town.
We did a little shopping (decided on my Christmas ornament from Switzerland) and tried to find ice cream, but the only shop we found did not have chocolate (tragic). The vendor claimed the Swiss prefer strawberry. Not sure if that is true, but we saved our calories for some Swiss Chocolate. We ran into our friends from the UK, who had also stopped in town. Had a nice chat and said our goodbyes again.
Before the heat of the afternoon, we walked back to our campground for a little more R&R and catching up using the wi-fi. Walked back to Stein am Rhein again for a wonderful riverside pasta dinner at the Spaghetteria. One more walk back to the campground to get off our feet since we are back on the road tomorrow.
