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Zeppellin Museum, Friedrichshafen, DE
Dornier Museum, Friedrichshafen, DE
Heading to Heiligenberg
Zeppelin-DenkmalZeppelin to your heart's content!
We travelled to Friedrichshafen on the sadly now defunct Ryanair route from Stansted. You've got to love Tony O'Leary - he's an objectionably arrogant piece of ectoplasm who would charge you for breathing on one of his planes if he thought that he could get away with it, but you have grudgingly acknowledge that he has brought a whole range of obscure and fascinating travel destinations within reach of us budget travellers! (For those interested in more on this fascinating theme, I would strongly suggest reading "How low can you go?" by Tom Chesshyre, a hilarious account of the author's travels on low cost airlines to destinations he has either never heard of and/or can't pronounce).
For us, the attraction of Friedrichshafen was that it was the 'home base' of the Zeppelin fleet, and obviously its location on the shore of gorgeous Bodensee (Lake Constance) was hardly a disadvantage! Yet another attraction was the network of ferries that shuttle up and down the lake, which provide a viable alternative to car rental.
Bodensee may not be a 'top ten' destination for English-speaking tourists, but it is immensely popular with Germans. Having said that, Friedrichshafen seems not to be quite as popular with tourists as more established Bodensee destinations such as Lindau, Konstanz and Meersburg. This is a pity, because Friedrichshafen is a congenial place to spend a few days, but also a boon, as it doesn't experience the same pressure of numbers in the high season (except for the terrific Zeppelin museum).
One of the joys of Friedrichshafen is that the transport hubs and the main attraction - the Zeppelin museum - are so closely spaced. The quay from which the ferry departs abuts the museum, and the railway station (which links to the airport) is the other side of the museum building. The lakeshore is a lovely place to promenade, and although Friedrichshafen isn't as scenic as Lindau or as historic at Konstanz, it still has an awful lot going for it, and makes an excellent base from which to explore the fascinating Bodensee region.
One day when I'm rich and grown up, I will return and treat myself to the Zeppelin flight!
