Pool time and the beautiful Bodensee!
Saturday morning, I woke up and noticed the sunrise peeking through the curtains. Because I was enjoying the bed so much, I didn’t get up to take a picture of it. Instead, we slept in until the sun was up, then we went down to breakfast. Unlike the other two hotels we visited, Oberwaid isn’t doing a buffet right now. Instead, you sit down at a table and a server brings you bread and a tiered plate stand with fresh fruits, cold cuts, cheese, smoked fish, and horseradish sauce. You can then order eggs, bacon, porridge, fruit juices, or rosti if you like. Naturally, you can also get coffee and tea, although prosecco is an extra charge to the 25 franc breakfast.
After breakfast, we decided to check out the pool, which was one of the amenities that attracted me to booking the hotel. Due to COVID-19, the hotel requests that people change in their rooms instead of the locker room. That was fine with me. We went down to the indoor pool area and enjoyed swimming some laps. I noticed, with much amusement, that on the ceiling, there was a warning about the pool walls. I suppose that’s for people doing the backstroke so they don’t hit their heads. I have never seen that at an indoor pool anywhere before, but I definitely appreciated it. I have hit my head more than once while doing the backstroke (explains a lot, I know). There was also a backboard by the wall. I definitely felt like this was a health and safety inspired operation.
Breakfast! 
A view of the Waldorf school across the street. 
The pool… 
It was refreshing! 
Safety first! 
The spa. I recommend looking at the hotel’s pictures for a better look. There were too many people in it for me to get a close up shot. 
The steam room was open. 
Water and tea… 
I loved the tea!
There was just one other couple in the pool area with us. They left and went outside to the hot tub. I must say, the hot tub at Oberwaid is very impressive. It rivals what we experienced in Gothenburg, Sweden last year at the Upper House hotel. Only four people are allowed in it at a time right now. There’s a rack where you can lie while the water bubbles, pressurized water spouts for massaging the shoulders, and my personal favorite, stations in the corners where you can get an all body massage from jets that surround you as you hold on to a circular bar that surrounds your body. There’s also a very nice walking park around the hotel, and a fully equipped fitness room, which of course we didn’t bother with. 😉
Indoors, there’s a Turkish bath, steam room, massage rooms, and a sauna. We didn’t opt to use the facilities indoors because of the whole COVID situation, but it appeared that everything was open. They also had water and a very comforting hot tea available. Spa services were available, although they required mask use for the therapist and the client.
After about an hour in the pool, we decided to visit nearby Rorschach, which is a town right on the Bodensee. If we had had another day, we would have made a point of visiting St. Gallen itself, which is very charming. But I was especially interested in getting to the lake, because even though we lived in the Stuttgart for six years over two different stints, we had never managed to visit the Bodensee up close. I got some very nice pictures after we had Italian food for lunch. We happened to stop into a pizzeria about a half hour before their pause. The waiter was kind enough to serve us anyway, although he told us in his Swiss style German that the pause was imminent.
Rorschach has an American restaurant that didn’t tempt us, even though it doesn’t take a pause. 
Downtown Rorschach. 
The shore of the Bodensee. 
Yes, you can swim there. They have little platforms you can lie on, and even a high dive on a pier. 
Lunch time! 
View from the restaurant… there’s train station right outside. 
Good food and service. 
I really enjoyed my tagliatelle salmone. I probably would have loved it if our Italian hotel had offered more of this instead of gourmet food that doesn’t quite meet the mark. 
Bill had a really nice chicken penne pasta that had a curry flavor to it. 
The Swiss advice for Coronavirus. 
It was a BEAUTIFUL day… 
There were food trucks and Biergartens. It was almost normal. 
This fish restaurant appeared to be expensive, even by Swiss standards. 
We stopped for gelato. 
Views from the hotel. 
After we walked around Rorschach for awhile, we decided to go to the COOP store– that’s a Swiss grocery store chain that we have encountered a few times. No one in the grocery store wore a mask, at all. There were markings on the floor showing where people were to stand and the cashiers were behind plexiglass. Other than that, it was pretty much business as usual in there. I must say, it was quite a surprise to see that.
We picked up some Swiss wine, dental floss, and sparkling water. Then we went back to the glorious hotel room and I watched What’s Love Got to Do With It on my computer. That is, of course, the 1993 movie starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne as Tina and Ike Turner. I was inspired to watch it because Tina Turner is now a Swiss citizen and lives near Zurich with her German husband, Erwin Bach. We didn’t bother with dinner, although housekeeping did bring us a couple of chocolates for our pillows.
I definitely would have liked to have explored St. Gallen and its surroundings more, but the trip was winding down and it was time to focus on the journey back to Wiesbaden on Sunday. I’ll wrap that up in the next post. I hope we can get to the Hotel Oberwaid again, though. It’s now one of my favorite hotels in Europe. I’m developing quite a list!