Germany 2024: Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance

I made a short visit to the shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee), one of the largest lakes in Europe, on the border between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in an October of autumn colours.

Friedrichshafen is the city of the Zeppelin airships: they were born here in the late nineteenth century, and the Zeppelin Museum tells their story, from Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's inaugural flight to the Hindenburg disaster. I saw the full-scale passenger cabins and the original engines: they let you imagine what it was like to fly between the two world wars.

I walked along the lakefront, with the Swiss mountains in the background beyond vineyards and orchards that turn red and gold in autumn. In October I saw morning mist rising off the water, boats linking the lakeside towns and, late in the afternoon, a light that turns the Alps into purple silhouettes.

In a weekend I found craft breweries, Swabian cooking and the slow pace of a provincial town on a lake that looks like a sea.