Sunday, 27 April 2008: Friedrichshafen

Yesterday: Hirschbrauerei Flözlingen

There aren't any breweries in Friedrichshafen, but I was confident we'd find someplace to have a beer. Besides, I wanted to see the Zeppelin Museum. We took the 10:02 Katamaran across the lake.

Ready to leave Konstanz Hafen on the Katamaran

Rothaus Tannen Zäpfle on board the Katamaran

The Zeppelin Museum is right on the harbor, or if you're arriving by land, it's at the Friedrichshafen Hafen train station.

Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen

Warning: non-beer content follows. Beer-related content resumes below.

There's fascinating stuff in the museum, the most novel of which is a 33-meter-long full-size reconstruction of the passenger decks of the LZ 129 Hindenburg. You can climb up the ladder and visit the promenade, lounge, writing room, and a single- and a double-occupancy cabin. Apparently there's another deck with the smoking room and restrooms, but it's not open to the public.

Exterior of the Hindenburg reconstruction

Single-occupancy cabin

Double-occupancy cabin

Lounge and promenade

Interior structure; ballast tanks and walkway at lower right

Evolution of girder design, starting with LZ 1. Engine in the background is from LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin.

Some other Zeppelin products

It's really hard to describe and depict the size of these airships. None of my pictures captures the scale at all. The only thing I found that comes close is this model in the museum's lobby. The bottom part represents Friedrichshafen's Altstadt area and the harbor; the Zeppelin model suspended above is to scale.

Leaving the museum, we wandered around the Altstadt in search of beer. While enjoying some fine Augustiner beers at a sidewalk espresso bar, we watched some parades come down the street. As near as we can figure, they might have had something to do with Walpurgisnacht. Or maybe they just like having a good time on a nice day in the streets of Friedrichshafen.

Fine Augustiner beers

Traditional German Scotsmen

A parade of jesters. Or something.

I had stopped at Pier 40 for a beer on an earlier visit; Paris and I did the same today, enjoying a number of Meckatzer Weizen at a sidewalk table.

Pier 40, Friedrichshafen

Meckatzer Weizen at Pier 40, Friedrichshafen

It got to be time to head back to Konstanz, so we walked back to the Katamaran pier.

The Katamaran comes into the Hafen, as a car ferry heads for the Swiss side of the lake. The Swiss Alps are in the background.

Rothaus Hefe Weizen on the Katamaran

Entering Konstanz Hafen

Once we were across the lake, we had dinner at the Konstanz Bahnhofgaststätte (bar/restaurant in the train station).

Bahnhofgaststätte Inter-Regio-Stube, Konstanz

Rothaus Dunkelweizen for along with dinner at the Bahnhofgaststätte

We went back to the hotel and enjoyed a couple of the bottles that Rolf had given us yesterday, then wandered over to the Kugel for a few. Last time we were here, the city of Konstanz had banned smoking in bars. This time, the patrons of the Kugel were puffing away just like the old days. Olaf says — and I'm paraphrasing greatly here — that a bar is a bar, and people smoke in bars. He emphasized that he is not a smoker himself. He has posted a sign behind the bar explaining his position; I wish I would have copied it. There's another one in the window that wasn't written by Olaf, but still gets the point across:

Sharp increase in traffic accidents with personal injuries, over 190,000 accidents while commuting. Would one ban driving? Countless dead from alcohol and social misery. Would one ban drinking? The Federation of Professional Associations recorded 1,248 fatal industrial accidents in 2006, and more than 14,000 cases of occupational illness. Would one ban working? The hypocrisy that goes with the prohibition of smoking makes me paraphrase an old poem:

When they forbade smoking, I did not resist. I was no smoker.

When they raised the insurance premiums for fat people or extreme-sports players, I did not resist. I was not fat nor a participant in extreme-sports.

When they wanted to introduce the RFID chip, with which it would be possible to supervise completely the consumer's behavior, and when they had installed cameras everywhere, I did not resist. I thought, I have nothing to hide.

When they finally forbade laughter, I could no longer laugh in my sleeve. And there was no one left to resist with me, because the people consisted only of informers that had driven out the amicable, social fellows.

Wolfgang Stengel

I'm also not a smoker, but I couldn't agree more. Olaf is putting up a hard fight against the city, and I wish him all the luck.

Anyhow, Paris and I finished the night with a couple of beers in the hotel bar.

Tomorrow: Freiburg im Breisgau