Rachel Going Places

⛵️🌊🍃🍇🏖️☀️

My parents are having a European summer of their own. On their way to a cruise through the Danube River, they started their journey by visiting me in Munich. Since as a family, we’ve already visited Munich in 2022, they wanted to travel with me to a new destination to explore and Lindau had been recommended to me as a must-visit location by many local Germans.

Lindau is a German village in southern Germany, positioned on the northern coast of Lake Constance, or Bodensee in German. Lake Constance is the largest lake in Germany but it wins this title through a cheat code; the lake is shared with Austria and Switzerland. Lindau had been highly praised by both fellow international students who had visited during their time here and by native Germans as well. So I decided it was the perfect place for my parents and I to spend the weekend.

We left Munich on a regional train on Friday morning and arrived on mainland Lindau 3.5 hours later. While we were waiting for our AirBnB to open up, we grabbed lunch at the local Lindau mall. After we were able to drop our baggage off at the accommodations, our first activity was to leave Lindau for the nearby village of Friedrichshafen. Also situated on the northern coast of Lake Constance, Friedrichshafen is a short 30 minute train ride from Lindau, but unlike Lindau, who is still part of the German state of Bavaria, Friedrichshafen is in the state of Baden-Württemburg. I’ve never been outside of Bavaria in Germany, so I was very excited to check another German state off my list and begin my journey towards visiting all 16 German federal states, just as I’ve visited all 50 American states.

I was also very excited to visit Baden-Württemburg for another reason. Earlier this year, I took (and passed) the Level One Master Sommelier certification, a very prestigious examination covering many details of the wine growing and wine making process around the world. Through this class, I learned a lot about the well-known wine regions of the world, and Baden-Württemburg happens to be one of them. Baden-Württemburg is Germany’s wine region and I was especially excited to try some of their wines with my parents, who spent a great deal of time learning about and enjoying California’s wine region when we lived there. I found a winery called “Herzog von Württemburg” and their website actually looked familiar so I wonder if I used them as a study resource during my class.

We made our way to Herzog von Württemburg’s vinothek to try some of their wines. We ended up having a fantastic time, sampling 8 different types of wine and enjoying the sunny day on their beautiful grounds by the lake. The vintothek was built in what used to be the duke of Württemburg’s summer home and we had the perfect weather to sit outside and enjoy the wines. Most of what we sampled were Rieslings, the wine Germany is more known for, but we also tried a Chardonnay, a Pinot Grigio, and a few of their Rosés as well. It was the perfect experience and we ended up purchasing a bottle of wine to enjoy later on as well.

The experience was further enhanced by the warm service we received. The ladies working the wine tasting were so sweet and welcoming and very conversational, asking us questions about and sharing their experiences visiting the U.S. On top of this, the whole experience of tasting 8 wines for 3 people, plus a whole bottle of wine, only cost us 34€. Well, it only cost my dad 34€.

We ended the day with beer, spritzes, and traditional German food on a patio right by the lake and a walk through Friedrichshafen’s little old town. We went back to Lindau for the night and shared some more wine, a red wine my Mom and I bought when we were in Italy for Easter.

The next morning we woke up and headed onto the island of Lindau. Lindau is both the village on the northern coast of Lake Constance, and the island of Lindau located right in Lake Constance. As we walked around the cute little town, we saw many of the sights. It may just be because summer is starting, but Lindau is a very colorful little town with brightly paints home, murals, and a plethora of blooming flowers in every color. The bright blue sky on this sunny day also helped.

Lindau’s harbor is encircled by a lighthouse on one side and a statue of a Bavarian lion on the other. Our first stop was to climb the top of the lighthouse and see the town from a different angle, with views of the Mangturm, a tower reminiscent of Rapunzel’s, and the surrounding Alps on all sides. We saw the boat-owning citizens of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland begin to wake up and take their boats through the blue-green waters of Lake Constance before heading to the other side of the harbor to say hello to the lion. After this, we went off to find a beach so I could go swimming. While the water’s of the lake were a bit dirty and gross with floating leafs and sticks (I’m sorry but I’ll always be a beach girly, I think lakes are absolutely disgusting), it was really cool to look up and see the surrounding mountains of the Alps and realize you’re swimming in an Alpine lake.

After drying off, we went to get a quick lunch and split a Flammkuchen, a German style pizza dish. Then we had our scheduled boat tour through the waters of Lake Constance. Bodensee Schifffahrt is the company we used which offers a plethora of ferries and boat tours all around the lake. We chose the Three Countries tour, which brought us into the waters of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I’ve been to Germany and Austria before, but haven’t yet been to Switzerland so this was the closest I’ve gotten. The tour was a very nice way to cool off and see the towns from a different angle.

After docking back in Lindau we went to dinner. I had a fabulous salmon pasta dish and my dad also joined me in enjoying local fish from the nearby lake. My mom, however, is allergic to fish but she still enjoyed in some good German food as well. After dinner we went back to our room to enjoy the wine we had bought the day before.

Sunday morning we departed from Lindau and I said good-bye to my parents at the train station. We parted ways here, as they are off to continue their European adventure and I was headed to a little town called Kempten on my way back to Munich. I think my parents enjoyed Lindau. They said they could have spent 3 days exploring all the coast of Lake Constance had too offer, so I think it’s safe to say their experience blew their expectations out of the water!