The Home of Ferdinand von Zeppelin

So here we are at the following morning ready for our second part of this busy weekend. Friedrichshafen, located at middle distance from Bregenz than Konstanz, it’s only 28 kilometres far from our previous destination, Lindau. And although being what is perhaps the city with the less sights to see and less charm if compared to the neighbouring cities, it is worldwide famous for being the hometown of Ferdinand von Zeppelin, and his arch-known invention, the Zeppelin.

And what is the highlight thrill you could do? Getting on a Zeppelin flight! As you hear. They do frequent flights through the day, weather permitting, and will take you around the lake and mountains. Obviously such an unique experience comes at a price. Unfortunately I did not take a flight this time. You need to book well in advance and of course count with much more time than the little we had.

Visiting the museum will be a great attraction on itself. They have a huge exhibition which is a true reconstruction of part of the Hindenburg, full with some of the rooms, lounges and smoking room, and the structure so you will get a great idea, knowledge, and history.

Apart from the museum there is not much more to see in the city. The main street has some nice buildings and the main church but nothing else. All you will need is the time to visit the museum and have a short walk; then head to you next city in your route or list, like in our case heading north to Mainau and Konstanz, not before stopping along the way at a surprise city we did not even know which to my personal taste, it came to be the most beautiful of the whole trip, Meersburg.

For more information about Friedrichshafen visit Wikipedia site. Germany’s currency is the Euro (EUR). Please note that any price reference is true as from when this guide was created, therefore check prices in advance as with the time they change.

What to see and do in Friedrichshafen

• Zeppelin Museum Located by the historic harbour.
• Church of Saint Nicholas In the centre of the old town along the main shopping and pedestrian street.
• Castle On the outskirts of the city.

Transports

As the same I wrote for Lindau, I will keep adding the same information for all the cities I visited around the lake as it applies for all of them. Reaching the lake overland from any of the three countries the lake is shared with is pretty much simple and quick if you depend on a car. Driving around the lake is the best and easiest way to explore every city with the chance of stopping wherever you like and enjoy the great views from the many viewing points along the way. Fortunately if you cannot count on having a car, there is an efficient rail network running along most of the lake connecting the most important cities.

The nearest airport is Friedrichshafen, although extremely limited flights are available to/from here. Other much bigger airports connecting with the principal cities in Europe are located around 2 hours drive from the lake and are Memmingen and Stuttgart in Germany, and Zurich in Switzerland, which was the airport we used in this occasion.

Within each of the cities along the lake there is absolutely no need for any public transportation. All of them are so small that doesn’t require too much time to walk from one end to the other.

Accommodation

There is a good choice of guest houses all across this area although prices are somehow a bit higher that what we expected. A general rule we follow, a good point to start your search is by checking some of our preferred affiliate hotel search engines such as Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Otel.com, Agoda, Opodo, Ebookers or LateRooms.

We decided to get our hotel at Friedrichshafen because it was the city with the best selection, and also the largest, facilitating the choice of restaurants and bars specially if you plan to go out in the night, although bear in mind it is not located in the city centre but some kilometres to the north after the airport. It was also the most convenient in location having in mind our busy agenda. We stayed at the Hotel Restaurant Krone, simple but really nice. Great value for money with a great included breakfast.

Photo Gallery

[flickr_set id=”72157644784304024″]