Monday 5th June
Our overnight stop, which I described yesterday as more like a campsite without a reception, revealed more surprises. The best toilet and shower facilities we have ever seen on a campsite. They even exceeded the British Caravan Club’s efforts, which has always been our benchmark. It all looked brand new and very expensive to equip, so well done Messkirch. Top marks.
When I had planned our stop in Messkirch I thought it was a plain little place with no interest. We were only here because of nearby Campus Galli, of which more later. However Sarah and I walked into the town in the evening and found it to be a typical pretty German Altstadt. Half timbered houses, a weird Maypole type contraption and a Renaissance Castle.
The Castle is explained by the fact that Messkirch was once the home of the the Counts of Zimmern. Apparently Count Froben Cristoph of Zimmern wrote a famous chronicle in the 16th Century which is an invaluable account of life in South West Germany at the time.
Returning to our campsite I pulled a leaflet of Campus Galli from the information office and found that Campus Galli is closed on Mondays! Change of plan.
So this morning, after a confusing stop at LIDL (confusing because Sarah found it quite unlike the LIDLs of the UK and Italy), we headed 45 minutes to Meersburg.
Meersburg is, these days, primarily famous as a popular tourist destination on the huge Lake Constance or Bodensee as the Germans call it. The town’s origins date back to at least the 8th Century when Merovian King Dagobert I built a castle here. The castle, which is still standing, is one of the oldest surviving in Germany.
A new castle was built in the 18th Century and Meersburg remained a prosperous town due to it being granted Free City status in the 13th Century, which for reasons I have not researched, made the town particularly attractive for traders.
Unfortunately, shortly after arriving at our official StellPlatz Sarah developed a migraine and so it was left to remaining mammal members of Team Basil (me and Skye) to explore the town.
The old centre of Meersburg is a picture postcard German town, full of half timbered houses, two castles and on top of all that standing on the shores of the beautiful Bodensee. The only thing that detracts from this pretty little town are the number of tourists like me!
A slight sidenote is that the Zeppelin was designed and built in nearby Friedrichshafen with the result that a modern day version now is apparent over the Bodensee giving tourists a trip for €300 plus for a 30 minutes ride!
Fans of Door of the Day are going to be disappointed for the rest of the trip because everything in German is so neat and tidy!
* Courtesy of the Boomtown Rats (look it up kids!)
