A bit of old style charm

After Füssen, I drove on to Lindau, a small island jutting out into the Bodensee, where the three borders of Austria, Germany and Switzerland meet. A beautiful little town, with cobbled streets, flowers in full colour and its own quiet charm. After strolling around the harbour I met up with Peter, a sound technician, born and bred on the island, who had kindly offered to host me, and was putting me up at a pension just around the corner from his house. As it was a beautifully sunny Easter Sunday, the little town was bursting at the seams with day-trippers, ice cream vendors and street performers which gave it a real summery feel.

Peter showed me all around the small town, and taught me a lot about the history of the place and the people. That night we went to one of the local Italian restaurants for dinner, and to a Dizzy Bee concert at one of the bars, which Peter had installed the sound gear for. The band was really good, had a lot of energy and (luckily for me) sang in English. After they’d finished their set, we moved on to another local spot before sleep finally got the better of me.

The room Peter had found me was fantastic, the house was on a quite cobbled street, I needed a huge silver old-style key to unlock the front door, and the room was something straight out of the 1900’s. I was ecstatic, and feeling pretty spoilt.

Waking up the next day, feeling much rested, I drove to Birnau, which is further up the eastern side of the lake, and has a famous Cathedral, and got as close to Easter Mass as I was ever going to get. As I sat out in the sun, amongst the dandelions and daisies, waiting for the mass to be over, so I could go in and look at the infamous ceiling inside, I got to see a ‘Zeppelin’. A rather large ‘blimp’ like aircraft, that were used to carry passengers from Germany to America in the early 1900’s, and are famous to the region. As it was still a public holiday, trying to find a park anywhere, to take a ferry across the lake, was mission impossible, so happy to hang around Lindau some more, I went back and soaked up some of the sun around the harbour.

Peter was extremely fascinating, and we talked a lot about his travels (as he’s a keen diver) and he has a soft spot for New Zealand, of which he has actually travelled all over, even to Gisborne, my hometown. Later that afternoon he convinced me to watch the Borat movie, which I’d been putting off, but actually found pretty funny (mostly shocking, but good for a laugh). We then went to another local restaurant, which specialises in Swabian cuisine. The restaurant was a rather random family run affair, and had more of a guest in someone’s home feel about it, but boy was it good. The menu was written entirely in swabian dialect, meaning I had no chance of understanding it, but quick as anything I was presented an English copy printed off the computer out the back, and asked if it was up to scratch. I had to chuckle at one of the descriptions: Krautspätzle: Sauerkraut and Spätzle mengled together in equal shares and fried; Comparable to a happy marriage. I absolutely love Spätzle, a type of noodle, and will miss it greatly when I leave Germany.

I found Lindau absolutely delightful, and would love to go back. It has a lot of character, and history at ever turn. I was a little disappointed that if there hadn’t been such a thick haze over the lake, I would’ve been able to see the Swiss Alps on the other side – just another reason why I’ll have to go back I guess. Peter was a fantastic host, with whom I am greatly indebted to. Stay tuned for Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Black Forrest.