Germany, I'm not just drinking beer this time.: Radolfzell is Rad, with my Fahrrad.

I am living in a town called Radolfzell, just over the border from Zuerich, Switzerland and about 20 km from the town of Konstanz on the Bodensee Lake. It’s a small area at the southern tip of Germany, about a two hour car ride southwest of Munich. My area is called Boeringen, not an actual town, just an area connected to Radolfzell. It’s super quiet here, on the small side – but very pretty and quaint. The Bodensee itself is beautiful, with trees climbing up mountains in its background. In the middle of town, the streets are mostly “Fussgaenger” (Footgoers) only streets – no cars allowed, just shoppers, bikes, strollers and wandering tourists. Lining these streets are a lot of little shops; travel agents, shoe stores, restaurants with long winded German names, bookstores, drugstores, pharmacies, health food stores, bakeries, ice cream shops and specialty stores.

To get to school I have to go about 15 minutes by bus, but am buying a bike soon and that will take around 20 minutes and some exercise. The bus comes to each stop only once per hour, at least the bus I take – and the last one to my house is at exactly 7:43 with only service on Saturdays until 1 pm, and no service on Sundays. Yep, it’s that small. The sidewalks are nice and wide, with a large area devoted to bike traffic so a rider doesn’t have to be in the streets with cars.

Pretty nice compared to Chicago’s bike area of three feet on Clark Street?

I’m staying with a very nice woman and we have toast and coffee in the mornings and starting soon I’ll ride my bike to school. I can feel my blood pressure dropping with every passing moment I’m here. Riding home from McDonald’s (WiFi with a diet coke purchase) I looked out and saw fields spotted with trees that went on forever, a sunset ahead of me, and little houses lining the streets. The calming effect of this place and the ability to reflect in surroundings such as these is incredible.

Typical street in Radolfzell...