Boats have obviously been very important for the Bodensee, and they still are, but to a different extent. Road and rail can manage most of the logistics, so the majority of boats on the lake are tour boats, which do also ferry passengers along their route (as I did in June between Gaienhofen and Berlingen), but there are still some purely utilitarian vessels left.
Lindau, Germany. German company BSB's tour boat München makes a proud entrance to the harbour between the lion and lighthouse.
Lindau, Germany. Austrian Vorarlberg Lines's eponymous vessel Vorarlberg arriving for a stop on its tour.
Bregenz, Austria. When I passed the harbour on the train to Bregenz, from a distance and behind some buildings, I was convinced this was a terminal building. But no, this is VLB's Sonnenkönigin, the lake's luxury party cruise boat. Make of that what you will.
Romanshorn, Switzerland. Car ferry Friedrichshafen arrives at dawn. Two car ferry routes remain: Friedrichshafen <> Romanshorn and Konstanz <> Meersburg. The ferry become restaurant Konstanz would have operated on the latter route.
Meersburg, Germany. Bus 700 from Ravensburg boards the current generation ferry Konstanz, with passengers - the ferry trip is part of the bus route! I also saw the ferry carry an international Flixbus coach.
Diessenhofen, Switzerland. Tours of the smaller Untersee blend into trips down the Rhine to Schaffhausen, as is reflected in the name of the main company here, Untersee und Rhein. Their boats, such as Thurgau above, are therefore smaller than the ones on the Obersee as they have to fit under bridges such as the cross-border bridge at Diessenhofen-Gailingen.
Mannenbach, Switzerland. Around the Reichenau island, two solar ferries also operate. These are small boats - the Insel Reichenau above carries only a dozen people at a time... and it kind of looks like a raft to be honest! Luckily, the Untersee probably doesn't have waves too high.
**Seehotel Schiff** Bekannt besonders für seine Küche – und das besonders bei Rentnern – hat das [Seehotel Schiff in Mannenbach](http://www.seehotel.ch/) mehr zu bieten als seinen grandiosen Hobelschinken. Zum Beispiel Achtzehn schmucke Zimmer, einen eigenen Strand am Untersee und: Gratis-Wifi! Mannenbach, Schweiz. Mai 2012.
