Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting Around
The best and only way to get around Meersburg is on foot. Even the large pay car park
near the car-ferry port (€1.20 per hour) is often full in high season. You might find free
parking north of the old town along Daisendorfer Strasse.
Hire bikes at
Hermann Dreher
( 5176; Stadtgraben 5; per day €4.50; rental
9am-noon)
, down the alley next to the tourist office.
Pfahlbauten
Awarded Unesco World Heritage status in 2011, the
Pfahlbauten
(Pile Dwellings;
www.pfahlbauten.de
;
Strandpromenade 6, Unteruhldingen; adult/concession €7/5;
9am-btwn 5pm & 7pm; )
6km north of Meersburg, represent one of 111 Prehistoric
Pile dwellings around the Alps. Based on the findings of local excavations, the carefully
reconstructed pile dwellings catapult you back to the Stone and Bronze Age, from 4000 to
850 BC. A spin of the lakefront complex takes in stilt dwellings that give an insight into
the prehistoric lives of farmers, fishermen and craftsmen. Kids love the hands-on activit-
ies, from axe-making to starting fires using flints.
Birnau
The exuberant, powder-pink
Wahllfahrtskirche Birnau
(Pilgrimage Church; Uhldingen-
Mühlhofen; 7.30am-btwn 5.30pm & 7pm)
is one of Lake Constance's architectural
highlights. It was built by the rococo master Peter Thumb of Vorarlberg in 1746. When
you walk in, the decor is so intricate and profuse that you don't know where to look first.
At some point your gaze will be drawn to the ceiling, where Gottfried Bernhard Göz
worked his usual fresco magic. It's situated 9km north of Meersburg on the B31.
Affenberg Salem
No zoo-like cages, no circus antics - just happy Barbary macaques free to roam in a near-
to-natural habitat is the concept behind the conservation-oriented
Affenberg Salem
(
www.affenberg-salem.de
;
adult/child €8/5; 9am-btwn 5pm & 6pm)
. Trails interweave
the 20-hectare woodlands, where you can feed tail-less monkeys one piece of special pop-
corn at a time, observe their behaviour (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours…) and get
