Konstanz and Kreuzlingen are two towns with one street between them. The border runs between buildings, with Germany to the north and Switzerland to the south, and for most of the day people pass through without a glance, going shopping, to work or to a lakeside cafe. Konstanz has about eighty thousand people and a handsome old town on the shore of the Bodensee, while Kreuzlingen is smaller but is the larger of the two Swiss towns on the lake. The Rhine leaves the lake here, flowing west, and the narrow passage between the Obersee and the Untersee is crossed by an old bridge.
Konstanz has a history that is well worth a pause. From 1414 to 1418, the town hosted the Council of Constance, a gathering of church leaders that ended the papal schism and condemned the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake here in 1415. The huge council building by the harbour still stands, and the statue of Imperia, a large woman holding two tiny figures in her hands, is an ironic modern monument at the harbour mouth. Locals will tell you that the city was spared bombing in the Second World War because it blended with the Swiss lights, a story that is widely repeated though hard to prove.
St Gallen, the label for this stop, lies about thirty kilometres south-east, in the hills above the lake. Its abbey library, with a baroque hall filled with carved wooden shelves and ancient manuscripts, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the abbey itself goes back to the eighth century, when a monk named Gallus is said to have built a hermitage here.
Riding around the lake is easy, with flat roads, bike paths and ferries, but the traffic at weekends is heavy. On the Swiss side, speed limits are strictly enforced. A motorway vignette is needed to use the Swiss motorways.
Fuel is easy in both towns, though prices are higher in Switzerland, and plenty of Swiss residents cross to Konstanz to shop and fill up. The harbour promenade has cafes and ice cream, and the ferry to Meersburg is a pleasant way to see the lake.