Reflections in the Untersee

Before coming to Lake Konstanz, I didn’t have a very good sense of its geography, other than Lake Konstanz was on the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. My friends had invited me, they are German and know the area well, and I left everything to them.

What turns out is the Lake Konstanz is about sixty miles long, and, yes, there are three countries along its shores.

The great Rhine River flows into Lake Konstanz, and flows out at its bottom. The lower part of the lake, where we are staying, is called the Untersee, or lower sea. This photo shows sunrise reflections of posts and a duck in the Untersee shortly after sunrise today.

Today, we drove about an hour into Switzerland—not part of the Eurozone, so we had to make sure we had our passports since we’d be crossing the border. We visited the Rhine Falls, the biggest waterfall in Europe, with snowmelt from the Alps feeding Lake Konstanz. The tourist concessions around Rhine Falls are every bit as toxic and annoying as those around Niagara Falls, but it is still a magnificent spot. If my photos come out, I will post one later!

Reflections in the Untersee © Harold Davis