The Bodensee: Biberach Day 4 (19 Sep 2013)

While we kept our plans fairly loose for this Len’s-trip-down-memory-lane part of our holiday, we did want to get to the Bodensee (or, Lake Constance).

Unfortunately our few days in Swabia coincided with a cold, damp spell. Thursday’s forecast was the best at 16°C albeit still with morning rain, so it was to be Bodensee day. Luckily, the rain didn’t show and we did get some blue skies for a while.

We decided to focus on two towns … but first, a little about the drive. Through all our drives in the south we’ve mostly seen fields of corn/maize. As corn doesn’t seem to feature in the food here we’ve assumed that it’s mostly grown as a winter food crop for animals. On our drive to the Bodensee, we saw maize fields (again), but we also saw apple orchards and vineyards. The apples were starting to be picked. Sue’s pretty fussy about the quality of fruit, preferring fruit in season, and reckons now’s the time to buy some fresh apples. We’ve also seen solar farms. Solar energy is taken seriously over here – on houses, on sheds/factories etc, and as big standalone installations.

Friedrichshafen

Friedrichshafen is the busiest town on the north side of the Bodensee and is the main harbour for boat and ferry crossings. According to our travel guide, it was “bombed to smithereens” during World War II due to its aviation industry. Its main claim to fame now comes from its aviation history, but one not related to WWII. Friedrichshafen is where Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin manufactured and launched – the first in July 1900 – his famous airships. We had to go, of course, to the Zeppelin Museum.

It’s a good museum that manages to combine technological history with social history. (It also has an art collection not related to the Zeppelin.) The current museum was opened in 1996 and is located between the harbour and the old town in the old railway station built in 1933 which, appropriately for the Zeppelin, is Bauhaus. The passenger Zeppelin’s interior was also Bauhaus style – a contrast to Modernism/Jugenstil/ArtNouveau with which it overlapped. Less was definitely more to the Bauhaus way of thinking … But more on this when we hit its birthplace, Weimar.

Back now to the Zeppelin. What fascinated us most was the breadth of its history. Most of you probably know that it was put to three main uses: military, research and travel. Despite knowing about the Hindenburg disaster, we were not aware, or had forgotten!, the significance of its use for international passenger travel, which made Friedrichshafen a major international hub. The museum has replicated sections of the Hindenburg including its lounge in which passengers could listen to music played on a grand piano, and its little cabins which look much like a current standard railway sleeper or cruise-ship cabin. Hermann Hesse wrote positively of his experience in 1911. A Google search didn’t find the quote we heard in our audioguide, but we think it was something about “floating along luxuriously” (English translation).

There aren’t many original “big” items from the Zeppelins – funny how people often don’t respect an industry as it dies out! But there are some, including sections of the flagship Graf Zeppelin’s engine, and a propellor. But there are many smaller objects such as the damaged jacket belonging to a radio operator on the fated Hindenburg, and items like menus and tableware. The audioguide mentioned the cult of collecting airship remnants after crashes.

We were also interested to read that during World War II the previous museum had been bombed, but artefacts had been moved beforehand. Many were apparently taken to France in 1945 by the French occupying forces. The history of museums themselves, let alone what they contain, can be very interesting … at least to Sue the librarian-archivist.

Lunch in Hagnau

We decided to again attempt to find a recommended restaurant for lunch and, with a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in difficult traffic conditions, we located the Gasthaus Seeblick in the little village of Hagnau. We were very glad we did. We sat on the patio in dappled sun, overlooking the lake. Peaceful, quiet, warm and dry. Bliss!

The food was lovely – a fresh salad followed by fresh panfried fish fillets served with simple boiled potatoes. We couldn’t resist sharing a serving of home-made waffles (grandma’s recipe, they said!) with cherries and cream.

Meersburg

All this left us with little time to give to our second main destination, the gorgeous Mediaeval town of Meersburg. You see one cute little German village and it seems unreal, and then you see another and another and you realise that’s how it is. Meersburg, though, is Fairy Tale Town Deluxe. Our photos don’t really do it justice, but take it from us, it is pretty … touristy, perhaps, but the buildings are genuine nonetheless.

We had planned to see the Altes Schloss but signposting wasn’t helping us to quickly locate it so we opted for the Neues Schloss built in the 1700s for the Bishop of Constance. It was interesting enough but not what we’d come to see. You can’t win them all.

Ottobeuren

Len was keen to hear the organ in Ottobeuren’s Basilika, and had noted that there was to be a mass that night at 7pm. So, we hightailed it out of Meersburg, back along village roads and, mercifully, an autobahn for a while, to Ottobeuren, where we tried but failed somewhat to have a light meal (at a Greek restaurant) and then went to church! We sat up the back, and then discovered that the service was being held in a nave, which turned out to our advantage as it enabled us to duck out after we’d heard some organ. It hadn’t been our intention to do so, but the organ, while interesting, wasn’t amazing and we’d had a long day with nearly an hour’s drive home. Fair enough?

… and few snippets of organ-music:

 

Three-words

SUE: Sun, Woo-hoo
LEN: Zeppelin, Organ music

and the stills…

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and the movies…

Panorama of the Bodensee from lunch Cafe Seeblick, Hagnau