Lustenau-Arbon

Yesterday: Wädenswil-Rapperswil

Got the same ticket agent today that I got on Monday. He sold me a day pass good for travel all over the Bodensee area for about half the price (€27-) of a round trip to Lustenau. (Where was he yesterday?) The train doesn't leave for an hour and a half, so I went to the Bahnhof Gaststätte for a beer. Of course, Heute Ruhetag. Took a 45-minute walk around the Konstanz Altstadt to kill some time. Somehow walked in a loop along the way, and found myself at Obere Laube, heading the opposite direction from where I thought I was going. (Technically, I wasn't "lost". I knew where I was, I just didn't know how I got there.)

The fog had pretty much cleared by the time I reached Sankt-Margrethen, and the weather was beautiful during the three-kilometer walk from Lustenau Bahnhof downtown to the Kirchbräu Gasthaus-Brauerei.

The former Kirchbräu, that is — the signs in the windows say "Premises for Rent". Fortunately, across the street the Austria Lustenau Cafe was open. I was able to get a couple of Mohren-Bräu beers before hiking back to the Bahnhof, along with a couple of very tasty Wurst served with mustard and grated horseradish.

Found a bus stop that offered three different routes to the Bahnhof, but decided to walk anyway. Worked out fine, because I was only five minutes from the Bahnhof when the first bus passed me. Surprisingly for a town of this size (population 20,000) the Bahnhof is not much more than a wide spot in the tracks — the office appears permanently closed — and it's quite some distance from the middle of town.

Waited 25 minutes for the train, made all the connections like clockwork, got off in Arbon, walked up the hill to Gasthof-Brauerei zum Frohsinn, and by some miracle, it's open! It's perfectly named, and it's got pretty good beers and terrific Rauchlachs.

Installed in the men's room is a self-sanitizing, gear-driven, rotating toilet seat. I must confess I've never seen anything quite like it before. I apologize for not taking a picture.

It just occurred to me that I haven't seen one single advertisement for an American industrial beer. When I visited Germany in 2003, the ads were everywhere.

We originally planned on having dinner at Zum Salzbüchsle (Salmannsweilergasse 26). The Andechser Dunkles was excellent, but the food menu was very limited, so we decided to go to the Turkish restaurant Radieschen (Hohenhausgasse 1). The food was interesting and tasty, and the Schlösser Alt wasn't bad either.

Tomorrow: Dornbirn