CITIES OF BADEN-WURTEMBERG
In the previous story «Germany. Surroundings of Welzheim” I shared my admiration for the nature of Beden-Wü rttemberg.
Here I will tell you about the cities of this land, where I visited in the summer of 2023.
At 18 km from Welzheim is the city Schorndorf, known as the birthplace of Gottlieb Daimler, an engineer - auto designer, creator of the world's first four-wheeled car. In this half-timbered city, almost all streets lead to the main church. Interesting is the clock tower and various sculptures, the square with a beautiful fountain.
45 km from Welzheim is Stuttgart, the capital of the southwestern German state of Baden-Wü rttemberg. Here are the headquarters and museums of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Stuttgart has many green areas, parks, and ponds.
If you don't know the city well, you can make an appointment near the beautiful and conveniently located monument to Duke Christoph in the center of Stuttgart)
On Sunday, all the shops are closed, so we walked and looked at the squares and fountains, historical monuments and sculptures, the New Palace, the Old Castle, sat on the Schlossplatz, fed the ducks in the Schlossgarten park, walked along the main street of Kö nigstrasse.
There was a beer festival on Karlsplatz.
On the city lake Feuer fed pigeons, ducks, swans, saw huge carps and turtles. And the view of the Gothic church is like from a postcard!
I visited the city of Friedrichshafen in the south of Germany, surrounded by high mountains near Lake Constance, bordering Austria and Switzerland. Friedrichshafen got its name in honor of the German king Frederick I.
From 1899, Friedrichshafen became known as the birthplace of aviation, when the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin developed the first rigid airship.
Over the next 30 years, the most famous passenger airships were built here, which made both intra-European and transatlantic flights. Today Friedrichshafen is the world center of airship building.
Here you can take a flight on a modern airship and enjoy the beauties of Lake Constance from above, or, as it is also called Bodensee or Lake Constance.
The Zeppelin Airship Museum features the world's largest exhibition on the history of air travel. There are technical and experimental halls, departments of the history of aeronautics, and the main part of the exposition is a 33-meter reconstruction of the section of the Hindenburg airship, made in full size. You can climb the stairs to the common salons, bedrooms, toilets. Passenger cabins are similar to Soviet train compartments.
The "Air Titanic" is the name given to the legendary airship "Hindenburg" built in 1931. The vessel, 246 meters long and 41.2 meters in diameter, was the largest in the world. The airship developed a speed of 125 km/h and had a range of 16.000 kilometers on one gas station. It was a real airliner: on the lower deck there was a kitchen and a bar, showers and toilets, on the upper deck there were passenger cabins, a restaurant with panoramic windows and a library. He successfully flew 17 times across the Atlantic. On May 6.1937, at the time of descent, a fire and an airship occurred crashed to the ground. 36 of the 97 passengers on board died from smoke and injuries. Soon all passenger airship flights were canceled.
In the center of the Old Town, next to the town hall, there is the Buchhornbrunnen fountain. The fountain embodies the creative interaction of past and present, history and mythology, art and technology. Buchhorn is the old name for Friedrichshafen.
The beautiful promenade of Friedrichshafen is a four-kilometer promenade along the lake, where there are numerous cafes, bars, restaurants, as well as several interesting sculptures.
Fountain dedicated to Count Zeppelin. This is a boy standing on a globe, with an airship in his hands.
Walking along the embankment, you can sit on a bench, watch catamarans, yachts, competitions on the lake.
The Moleturm observation deck, 22 m high, on the pier of the lake offers a fantastic view of the Austrian and Swiss Alps, the city and the pier. Entrance is free, the climb is not difficult, there are always a lot of people.
We had to go to Aldau airport. On the way we dropped into the Bavarian town Memmingen.
We didn’t see much in an hour, but Memmingen fell in love with the narrow streets of the old town, paved with medieval cobblestones, neat colorful buildings, cozy cafes and numerous canals, through which, oddly enough, boats never go.
Guided by the dictum of Count Zeppelin “You just have to want and believe in it, then everything will work out”, I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit Germany again!
