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Lindau - Germany
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Bavaria’s only Lighthouse

Moving on to the next city after Bregenz crossing the border between Austria and Germany to Lindau, well, an almost imaginative border since the only clue that we are in the next country is a welcoming sign. It’s only 10 kilometres what separate both cities, and as I will explain in the following guides as well, distances between the cities along the lake are really small. It’s just matter of minutes until you are in the next and so on, hence the easiness for doing a tour similar to what we did. It works perfectly and you will enjoy lots.

The full of the historical city is an island connected to mainland by a road and rail bridge. Lindau is the main port on the southern side of the lake, being one of the major landmarks itself with the beautiful sculpture and the only lighthouse in Bavaria. But it’s not only by the port where you will enjoy the sights and instead all scattered around the island, with many imposing buildings such as the City Hall with the famous decoration of painting the façades Bavaria region is famous for.

Walking the entire city won’t take too long for what you could easily visit almost every street. We spent no more than 2 hours and visited everything. I agree we rushed a little bit but it was just in order to catch the last of the sun light.

This was our last city for today. Very proud that we had the perfect time as calculated without missing any sight on any, and extremely fortunate with the weather. While in Bregenz was cloudy for most of the time, Lindau started cloudy but as the sun was going down it came out of the high clouds giving us incredible colours and views of the lake and mountains behind.

For more information about Lindau check 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 Lindau

  • Harbour entrance Is the most known landmark in the city with the Bavarian Lion and Lighthouse at both sides.
  • Mangenturn Also located by the old harbour. The combination of this tower, lighthouse and lion monument as seen from one of the corners in the harbour will be your cover picture without doubt (which is the one in this travel guide).
  • Rathaus The Town Hall is an impressive example of painted house, typical from this region of Germany.
  • Saint Stephen’s Church Founded in 1180, with rococo stucco ornaments on its face and an altar dating from 1780.
  • Saint Peter Church The oldest in the city and one of the oldest in the region of Lake Constance. Within its walls you can admire a masterpiece, the early Gothic drawings in red ochre depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ and the lives of St Peter and St Christopher.
  • Cathedral Completed in 1752 in Baroque style, with interior paintings in rococo.

Transports

As the same I wrote for Bregenz, 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.comAgoda, 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.

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