Mainau - The island of flowers

Mainau is a splendid little island on Lake Constance, on the German side of the lake, a little above the town of the same name, where an immense flower garden has been created, with paths winding around large, brightly coloured flower beds, greenhouses for tropical plants, Germany's largest "butterfly house", and a model railway — an up-and-down amid nature full of colourful flowers. The little island can be easily reached by car using the L219 road, the Mainaustraße, which is just before the Constance ferry and leads to the other shore of the lake. Close to the island, reachable only by a pedestrian crossing, there are no problems for parking the car as a large area is available for this purpose, with signs to remind you where you've left the car. Parking and entry to the island are paid, but the visit to this place is worth the toll paid.

Just inside there are bars and self-service to refresh ourselves and then seeds, bulbs and various souvenirs to help us relive the beautiful place we visited over time. The park is kept very well and offers lovely walks among very colourful flowers of many varieties. Absolutely not to be missed is the "butterfly house", the greenhouse, at 27 degrees and a humid environment, where you walk among tropical vegetation and many butterflies fluttering around us, beautiful, flying among us, eating among us, mating among us, showing us their evolving life, from green caterpillar to colourful butterfly.

We went to Mainau on 30 April 2008, and it was part of the itinerary arranged for us to discover the Black Forest and nearby Alsace (other diaries), setting off on 25 April from Marcon (Venice) and returning there on the first of May after covering more than 2000 km, all via the Brenner, Innsbruck, Konstanz, Freiburg. No accommodation booked, everything found, without any problem, depending on where we were, favouring B&Bs, rooms with private facilities and breakfast. A rich breakfast in the morning, a snack in the late afternoon and then dinner with our legs under the table of some good little place to discover the local specialities — a solution which, to date, has let us travel visiting a lot, photographing without the time limits of organised tours, not forgoing local cuisine which is often lost with an organised trip, and in particular without bleeding our wallet dry.

Have a good trip. Wanda & Giancarlo