I feel like I’ve gotten to know the Southern region of Germany pretty well since I got here, and for the most part it’s a very beautiful and busy place. I think the weekend that we decided to drive around down there had about 5 random holidays lines up in a row that we didn’t know about, which might account for the busyness, but it was fun, so there.
We pretty much just hopped in a car and drove aimlessly around the region (although there was an overall destination in mind). We drove through Ulm, Ravensburg, Weingarten, Lake Constance, a bunch of random tiny towns that I can’t remember the names of, and ended up in Füssen for Neuschwanstein for the second time— except this time it was spring and not winter, so it was incredibly more colourful (and warm). We passed by many cows, dandelions, and the Alps were almost always in the picture dead ahead. Here are two of the highlights which I found the most interesting.
Bodensee: Zeppelin-land
Lake Constance, known to the Germans as Bodensee, is the area in which the Zeppelins were birthed and mostly produced in the time of the Zeppelins. It’s obvious that they are very proud of their Zeppelin-building history and they express that pride in the form of über-modern sculpture. There was a lot of it in the town. I mean, there’s a lot all over Germany… they love their modern art! But the stuff here was even weirder because it tried to integrate the Zeppelin motif as much as possible. I’m not completely clear on why this particular man-headed Zeppelin figure has horns, but whatever.
Across the lake you can see Switzerland and if you so desire, you can take a ferry across and spend a couple hours there. I always get really excited when I’m in a place where I can see another country from where I’m sitting. I got the same feeling when I was in Biarritz, France and looking out down the coastline to Spain. Coming from the United States, where the land space is just so ridiculously big, I never really get that feeling. I mean, you might feel that if you lived on a border, like in Buffalo or south of San Diego… but most people in the US will never look out and see another country across the way and have it be normal, like it is in Europe or other parts of the world where the countries are so small and close together.
It’s like when the international office people here at the German school at which I’m studying say that 85% of their exchange students stay on for another semester (and give us Americans/Canadians puppy dog-eyed faces when we say that we want to go home after just one semester). It takes us 6 to 8 hours to fly back home to our families and it can cost us thousands of dollars. 85% of the exchange students here are from somewhere else in Europe or Persia. They can hop home for a weekend for €20 on a flight that only takes them an hour or two (and they do… multiple times during the semester)! This is commonplace for them. It’s not magical or weird to be able to see another country/culture/world across a lake because they’re all so close together.
Ottobeuren Abbey, or Why I Find It Hard To Take the Baroque Period Seriously
The Abbey at Ottobeuren is this huge, over the top building that sits in the middle of this town that can’t have more than a population of 50. It was originally founded in 764, but the building you see here today was built from 1737-1736 (the past five or six incarnations of it were either torn down or consumed in flame). It’s got three organs, including one of the more historic ones in Europe— and if you know me, that’s exciting!
Overall, this place was so over the top that I couldn’t decide if I was nauseus with awe from the beauty or with disgust from the kitsch. There is so much to look at in this church that it would take a lifetime to find every detail. That said, would it be worth it? It’s just so frilly and crazy that I think that would go too far. BUT… it is definitely worth seeing if you’re in Germany because you’ll never see anything like it again!
