Zigzagging Germany's southern border

From Meersberg on Lake Konstanz to the Rhine Falls on the Swiss/German border through Zurich, Vaduz, a visit to a beautiful church in the middle of nowhere and back to Fussen (Schwangau is a hamlet close by).

The distance between the Hotel at Meersberg and the next night at Schwangau was just over 100km away. We didn't want to queue in the afternoon for Ludwig's castles so decided to go early the next morning (on advice from those who had gone before) and detour through some other places of interest, taking the whole day to get from A to B instead.

The newest of the fleet that crosses Lake Konstanz every 10 mins.  It looks like a floating car sales showroom

Cyclists use the ferry too.

On the car deck.

Hotel zum Schiff had a beautiful breakfast room with views across the Lake to the Swiss Alps, it was made to feel closer by the gloriously clear and sunny morning.  We checked out and drove to the Ferry crossing that we had investigated on our reconnaissance walk after dinner the night before. It cost €11:50 to take the car across and €2.80 for each passenger after the driver and took about 20mins to cross.

Morning devotions or sun worship?  Willow is adjusting to the bracing mountain air after her time in Italy.

We drove up the penninsula and around to Neuhausen and the largest waterfall in Europe. The Rhine falls are 250m wide and 23 high and have been a travel destination for centuries.  Eels are the only creatures that can swim up them so the fish are trapped forever in Germany or Switzerland. If these were the grandest waterfalls ever seen by Europeans, no wonder the explorer, David Livingston, was soo gobsmacked when he saw 'The Smoke that Thunders'(1688m wide x 108m high) in Zambia and named them after his Queen. (The highest falls in NZ are the Browne Falls in Fiordland at 836m and in Aussie the Wallaman Falls have the longest single drop at 305m - the highest in the world are the Angel Falls(979m) in Venezuala - named after a pilot who nosedived his aircraft into them, he and all his passengers survived the surprise trip!)

J.M.W.Turner's painting of the Falls from his visit in in 1802 compared to today's viewpoint.

 Another famous personality, Mary Shelley made this observation about the falls. "A portion of the cataract arches over the lowest platform, and the spray fell thickly on us, as standing on it and looking up, we saw wave, and rock, and cloud, and the clear heavens through its glittering ever-moving veil. This was a new sight, exceeding anything I had ever before seen; however, not to be wet through, I was obliged quickly to tear myself away." Written by Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein, daughter of Ms Wollstonecraft (A Vindication on the Rights of Women) wife of a Poet) in her travel book ‘Rambles in Germany and Italy’ 1844.

View from in front of one of the many shops making the most of tourist dollars with Swiss souvenirs. 

From the mid river viewing station towards its southern source in the Alps

Settling ourselves in the boat that will take us out to the middle of the falls - no life jackets offered

At the top of the viewing platform mid falls - very narrow.  A whole boat load of people eager to push past and get their shot. The couple before us took over thirty selfies from every direction.

The Schloss on one point is accessible by another boat and has several viewing platforms down the cliff.
The water boiled away and seemed very deep. A disused Mill is on the opposite bank and plans
 for a hydro station were considered until 1959 when the area was protected by the state.

Heading down from the platform

We had discovered that one of the Lindt Factories was in Zurich - just a hop skip and a jump away so a vote was taken on the places to visit options and carried to notch up another chocolate factory tour! We had to make do with the giant Easter warehouse sale and the packed factory store - Lindt have stopped their factory tours. Crossing the border into Switzerland we passed a whole lot of cars who had parked near the border and were walking into a set of rooms on the side of the road under the unused passport checking station road wide roof. We thought we'd better find out what was going on. To use the Swiss motorways each vehicle needs an annual road tax sticker on the windscreen. 40 Swiss Francs later(£27ish) we had a red cross sticker on our windscreen that allows us to drive anywhere in Switzerland until next April 156 - I would be surprised if we use it again.

Easter Warehouse - M is holding a full bag!

The air was crystal clear and Lake Zurich sparkled as we drove to Kilchberg(the suburb of Lindt) with our windows down to let the warm sun in past our tinted windows. We hit the Easter warehouse first and stocked up on goodies, including a few experimental products we hadn't seen in the UK. The factory store had other new products and all the old faves at pretty good prices (I had used the conversion on the rd tax reciept to work out the pound rates).  Even though I was carrying two large bags when we walked to the car we all felt that we had been very self disciplined and that there was plenty more we could have added in.

Dream come true?  Not even lickable!

Lake Zurich towards the Alps

We had lunch in the Factory Cafe after trying to find a place looking over the lake to eat at. The one restaurant we saw was a bit posh for our budget and time constraints. Some members of the family took full advantage of the very generous baskets full of chocie eggs lying around for Lindt Cafe visitors.

The next point of interest was the sixth smallest country in the world - Lichtenstein. We headed straight for the Alps driving along side Lake Zurich and another smaller lake and through lots of tunnels. A four mile tunnel from around here to the Italian quarter of Switzerland is one of the longest in the world. There was a sign at the beginning of each tunnel to tell you how long it was but the scenery was so amazing that I didn't think to photograph any of them.


We stopped in at Vaduz after crossing the river border. The country has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world and the lowest unemployment rate. It's main industry are banks and financial institutions. In this way it is very much like a little Switzerland. In fact the Swiss incorporated it under their wings during WWII to maintain it's neutrality.  It doesn't have an army and less than 100 people in the entire police force.

The story I read was that the Lichtenstein family were very rich and powerful in Austria but were unable to secure royal titles because all the Principalities were taken - even though they owned more land than their Princes! An opportunity came to buy up a 160km square parcel of land that had several villages, high altitude pastures and bordered by the Rhine.  They bought it and in 1806 had it recognised as their Principality. A Constitutional monarchy still exists. In WWII the family, who had never lived in Lichtenstein and few had ever visited it, packed up all their valuables(truck loads) and hightailed it to their beloved(Swiss protected) country just before the Third Riche annexed Austria.  The claim to get back their Austrian lands from before the war is still pending in the International court.  Meanwhile they've done up their castle, built some good roads and made the most of what they've got. There wasn't a lot happening in the Capital the day we passed through.

Left: Entrance to Vaduz after crossing the Rhine and thus the border  Right: The Prince's Castle

We cut through Austria to avoid bad traffic warnings on the GPS for the route past the end of Lake Konstanz that we originally had plotted and crossed back into Germany further east. There were still many hours of daylight left in the day so we decided to (not voted for democratically this time) go off the big roads and head towards the Weiss Church just north of Fussen. M had been there with the Geology tour he went on as a young science teacher with a group of others from NSW. I was a little doubtful that a church stuck out in a paddock surrounded by lots of farmland could be too interesting even though I remembered seeing some pretty good Rococo decorating on his old video footage. It has a statue of a chained and scourged Saviour, in 1738 tears were seen on its face and it has been a site of pilgrimage ever since.

Palaminos being called to the gate by the stud owner

M's Sound of Music moment

Such a South NZ scene, made us suddenly homesick.

Telephone exchange boxes
like this were everywhere

We drove through some curly roads that reminded me strongly of the Lake district back in the UK but with the Austrian Alps in the background. There were open places that also reminded us of home, down in South NZ but with green grass and dandelions after thousands of years of agriculture and big populations rather than rocks, tussock, a few lupins and more sheep than humans.

Statue of pilgrimage in the centre.

Weiss church looks a lot bigger on the outside than it does on the inside and the ashphalt parking area (to the right of the above photo) is enormous.  It would be terrible to visit when the car park was full. There were only 30 or so people around when we arrived at 6pm. (It is open 8am- 8pm April - October, shorter hours in the winter months).
The UNESCO site says "Miraculously preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, the Church of Weiss was built in 1745-54 by architect Dominikus Zimmermann and is a masterpiece of Bavarian Rococo – exuberant, colourful and joyful." 

This is high praise but well deserved, our photos just don't relate the size and the atmosphere.  Every nook and cranny has been covered in beautiful pastel tales from the Bible but with a romance and celebration of optimism.  I think the statue must have been crying because real life could not mimic the step closer to heaven that the artistry provides. It seems such a juxtaposition that a fairly chunky, brutal depiction of Christ is the shinning jewel in this Versailles of Church interiors. In a day filled with beauty this was the cherry on top.

Even the organ pipes were beautiful.

I was very nervous about the next hotel as the two nights I had booked for a 'family room' cost less than the one night at Meersberg.  I was worried that an ancient sofa bed - sagging in the centre or collapsing fold out beds might constitute the children's accommodation. (Since Willow is taller than me I've stopped listing her as a child)  What a hugely pleasant surprise to find that Hotel Waldmann was one of the many enormous German Chalet's we had seen dotted across the countryside with separate bedrooms and proper twin beds
in the second room, huge feather duvets and a big bathroom with a window and heating. It was clean with a table and electric kettles in the hallway for borrowing. The breakfasts were buffet continentals and our side had perfect views of Ludwig's castles. When checking we were told that it had snowed the night before and had been -4 C that morning.  It was hard to believe after our day of sunshine. http://www.hotel-waldmann.de/  Don't be put off by the very clumsy English translation on this website.

We cooked up a Pad Thai that had passed the test on the induction element and threw in some cashew nuts for salt and texture for tea. Petal and M got good Wifi on their various tech companions, I haven't kept up with 'updates' so everything on my phone was tooooo slow to bother with and Willow had to go skulk in the hallway until she got reasonable wifi coverage. Unfortunately the lights went out in the hall way after a certain time, there are no windows in the stairwells of these buildings  and there wasn't any wifi anywhere close to the light switch - she got some pretty funny looks by surprised guests returning to their rooms! It's amazing what teens will do to stay in touch with their friends.

View from the veranda off the second bedroom.
Neuschwanstein to the left and the yellow Scholoss Hohenschwangau to the right. Tomorrow's adventure.

Listened to this May Day Weekend!
(Monday is a Bank Holiday - everyone else gets the day off too)

On Saturday I sang in the Cambridge Philharmonic's production of Hayden's 'Creation' at the West Rd concert hall. The advertised Soprano soloist had come down sick the day before so Sophia Larsen was called in last minute to replace her and was absolutely superb. I was lucky enough to meet her during the interval as she dried her hands (You know where!) and told her what I thought.  She shared that she had only ever sung it in English before but luckily German was her best 'other' language so she hadn't needed too much coaching to get it right. After struggling myself all term with the German text (there is still one line that I just vowel through) my respect for her tripled. The Bass and Tenor were also very good. There are only four bars of contralto solo so the conductor, Tim Redmond got us to do it instead of paying for a fourth soloist.

Unfortunately chatting to Ms Larson made me late for the choir lineup for reentry, then as I joined another line to sneak in I realised that I'd left my score in the rehearsal room so had to scamper back quickly. Thankfully the sister Altos in my row had wiggled down to fill my place next to the Bass' and left me a spot at the end so I didn't have to trip over them all to get there. I'll take a box of Chocies in as a thank you for tomorrow's practice - we're starting Berlioz's Grand Death mass. We'll be joined by the Norwich choir and orchestra and four brass bands in Eli Cathedral for a massive televised performance on July 5 - Granny flies in just in time to catch it!

Left: My photo    Right:  Someone closer     Below: Corn exchange from the stage with our seats smilied.

Sunday night we went to the Corn Exchange to see Neil Finn's concert.  We booked our tickets months ago, not a seat was empty by the time Tim and his band took the stage. Unfortunately the warm up act (a talented young Auckland singer songwriter, Hollie Fullbrook from Tiny Ruins) was wrecked by really bad sound mixing problems and a few niggles still remained by the time she'd finished. The new album - Dizzy Heights -  has a lot of synthesizer and reality underlays but the Finn's hallmark, sophisticated, poetic lyrics are brilliant and reflect our current experiences. Sometimes on the album the sound mix buries the vocals which just reminds me of a noisy classroom but in concert this seemed to have been balanced back towards the voices more.

He played quite a few Crowdy pieces and a couple of Split Enz classics. His wife has joined the band as Bass player which must make touring a lot nicer for him. Lisa Tomlins'- vocals were fabulous, Jess the guitar was a hoot, Ranger the US keyboard guy got his groove on with a guitar now and again, Hollie played guitar, cello and helped out with the backing vocals now and again, the drummer was young and fantastic. It was really loud and really good.

At the end the band went off and Neil played requests from anything in his repertoire. No pausing beyond a second to recall keys or lyrics. He played on piano and guitar and has great repartee with the audience.  His Cambridge story was that in the afternoon they had gone to Kings Chapel to hear the legendary choir but a 'not very Christian man' wouldn't let them in because 'the doors had been closed' even though it hadn't started yet. Tim said he considered pulling out the 'Hey now Hey now' lyric but just got him back by comparing the choir to the sewage issues in the dressing room back stage.  The Cambridge crowd roared with laughter so throughout the evening the jokes progressed until everyone had agreed to go streaking through the King's Quad after the concert - he reckoned 2000 bare butts on their hallowed grounds might loosen them up a bit.

Willow was keen for me 'not to participate' but I made no promises! I only sang along when the audience was invited to and honestly it was soooo loud that nobody would have heard if I did. Near the end Mr Finn got us all to sing Four seasons in one day (which Cambridge does just as well as Christchurch) and Willow got her own back by recording it on her phone - too bad I was sitting beside her, if we ever go to another concert together M can sit between us. Petal was sitting next to a very enthusiastic fan who was explaining every song to his companion of less Finn knowledge but she really enjoyed his big bass 'whooping' at the appropriate moments.

Tim Finn is one of the genius' of his generation. How does one brain come up with such a huge variety of musical genres, lyric subjects and styles and yet maintain that definite Finn flavour. He's only getting better!