Konstanz, Germany

We recently made a day trip to nearby Konstanz, right on the border with Germany.

The city is a well-known shopping destination for Swiss people because of low prices and easy access but the city has more than that. Inhabited since the Stone Age, in the 1400s the town-state asked the Old Swiss Confederacy to become a member but they were weary of large members and they voted against it. It’s also the home of the Council of Constance, where the Church fixed a pesky situation with three people claiming to be the Pope. The city preserves many of its old buildings because during World War II its inhabitants let the lights on at night making bombers believe it was part of Switzerland (which would have fooled me as well). And one more tidbit: Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the inventor of eponym aircrafts, was born here.

The first thing we did when we arrived was go to the flower island, Mainau, a ten minutes bus ride away from the train station. Luckily the weather that day was on our side and we were able to enjoy all its colorful flowers.

Besides lots of flowers and a mini-zoo Mainau had a butterfly house. Walking inside it I felt like being in a dreamy slow motion world. You couldn’t turn too quickly because you could smash butterflies coming from your sides behind or hovering near the floor. And when they stopped they hypnotically made you stop.

After this we took we said by to the flowers and to the enormous Lake Constance surrounding it and we strolled around the beautiful old town. After a visit to the cathedral, churches and narrow winding streets we headed to the station and managed to catch our train with a minute to spare.

All in all it was a nice place to spend the way.