Wednesday 29 October 2014

Lindau Buildings

This is - promise! - my next-to-last post about Lindau. Isn't it amazing how much blog material I can get out of a mini break that lasted from Wednesday night to Saturday after breakfast?

Today I'll show you some of the buildings in/on Lindau ("on" because it is, after all, the name of the island as well as the town) I found most beautiful, or most interesting. Something of a more specific sightseeing trip, if you like; not just a stroll along the streets and alleys like on yesterday's post.

Let's start with the view from our hotel room. Across the road was a "Stift", a home for the elderly originally founded by devout Catholics. The inscription on the wall means "What time (literally "which time") is it? - It is time to do good."

 















This was our hotel. It was simple, clean but not spotless, and the staff was... horrible. A grumpy old man and his wife, both originally from Berlin, who did not treat you as a guest but as a burden. They were impolite to impertinent, and I found it really hard to deal with them. Had I had a choice, I would have gone somewhere else - but there was a trade fair going on at the same time, which meant each and every room in Lindau was taken.
The location was ideal, right on top of the old city wall. You can see it in the picture of the street, too, it is the yellow building.


Lindau's old town hall, front and back. (The new town hall, where local administration sits today, is nearby.) Originally, it was built in 1422 but altered to what you can see today in 1576. The murals were added much later, in the 19th century, when it became fashionable to see the past as a string of one glorious event after the other.

This building is not on the tourist maps, but I liked the way it looked behind the silhouette of the tree. It is home to Lindau's Zollamt (customs office).

The Mangturm ("Mang tower"), along with the lighthouse and the lion certainly Lindau's best known and most iconic sight. It was Lindau's lighthouse from 1180 until 1300; back then, there was no gabled roof on top of it, but it ended with the yellow upper floor where the fire was lit. The roof with its colourful tiles was added in the 19th century. Up until the 18th century, it did not stand on land, but was only accessible by a draw bridge.

A beauty and health clinic. There are several here on the island, and it is known in Germany that rich and famous people go there for treatments and therapy. It is typical for Lindau, therefore I have included it here.

A very modern building I can not remember from my previous visit in 2008. Not sure whether it is a hotel or an apartment building for rich people; it is close to the private yacht harbour.

The tower of St. Peter's church, Lindau's oldest church. The foundations of the building date back to around the year 1000. It is not used as a church anymore, but a memorial to the dead of both world wars and the 14 inhabitants of Lindau who fell victims to the Nazis.
The walls show murals and frescoes from around 1485, only partially restored. It was too dark in there to take pictures; plus there was a group with a guide while I was there so there were always people in front of the walls anyway. But the solemn atmosphere was striking and very different from the hustle and bustle on the main street with its many shops and restaurants.

Just one more Lindau post tomorrow!

15 comments:

  1. How sad that the hotel owners see guests as a burden! They are in the wrong business.

    The town is lovely, though, from every angle you've shown.

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    1. Yes, they definitely are in the wrong business. They did not stop me from enjoying our short stay in Lindau very much, though.

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  2. Lindau really is a wonderful place. Sorry about the hotel staff. Funny, they should know better than to alienate their guests.

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    1. We got talking to another guest at breakfast, a man about the age of Mr. Grump. He said he loves the place and keeps coming back every year - if you know how to take them, more like a cabaret program than like real life, you love it. Well, it's not my kind of entertainment, I'm afraid, but he is very welcome to it if that is what he enjoys. Takes all sorts...

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  3. Again, I lost a comment. I finish and push publish and forget the extra steps you have now......Well, lovely photos.

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    1. I didn't know the comment vanishes, it should still be there even if you sign in after you have typed it. But it happened to me similarly before on wordpress blogs. These days, I have become more cautious and press CTRL + C before I press publish - just in cse...

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  4. In England a "stiff" is a dead body so I don't think that "Stift" would down too well as the name for an old people's residential home. Isn't it amazing that sometimes people who are meant to provide service to guests act as if they themselves should be the focus of good service? I hope your last Lindau post covers Museum 'Haus zum Cavazzen' and the Lindauer Zeitung, which is, as everybody knows, part of the Schwäbische Zeitung.

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    1. I'm afraid I did not read the Lindauer Zeitung while I was there - too short my stay, and too eager I was to get out of the hotel every morning, so I did not linger over a paper at breakfast.
      As for the Cavazzen, the building can be seen in my previous post. I did visit the museum on the Friday and was the only visitor there - it was their last few days before closing for the winter. One of the gentlemen who work there was very kind and willing to answer even my silliest questions. He was probably bored out of his mind and glad for the distraction!

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    2. Your silliest question? Where is God?

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    3. I wouldn't ask this from museum staff, YP. No, probably the silliest question I asked the poor man was whether there had ever been any curtains on the massive 16th century fourposter bed in one of the rooms. Could have answered the question myself, had I looked properly; there was no kind of railing or other fastening at the top of the bed frame, so, no curtains.

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  5. I love your posts about Lindau! If I had gone there, I would be doing about a million posts about it! It just looks so beautiful. I looked up some more info about it, and I have to say that your photos are better than the other ones that are on the more official travel sites!
    I am glad you photographed the "What Time Is It" It is time to do good"...I love that!
    One thing, the kind of lettering on the signs, they remind me very much of my Grimm Brothers books...not sure if I am remembering correctly.
    Oh, and have you ever seen "Faulty Towers"? It was an English comedy and was about a very rude hotel owner, it was based on a real hotel owner from Torquay!

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    1. Yes, I know Faulty Towers, it has been rather popular in Germany in the late 1980s I think. You could say that the people who run the "Möve" in Lindau were like that - just not as funny (at least not to me).
      The lettering on the mural is deliberately made to look like Medieval writing. The house was built at a time when to "historize" was very popular in Germany.
      Thank you for saying that about my pictures!

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  6. I sometimes wonder why grumpy people take up the "hospitality" (if you can call it so in their case) industry . Perhaps they are masochists...

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    1. By the low rate they charged (even while the fair was going on and rooms were so much sought after), their motivation can't be greed; so, yes, I wonder why they do it!

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  7. Reading this post after the previous one I get the impression that you have a considerable facility for taking people-free photos. As always I enjoy visiting places vicariously through your eyes and lens. The only time I ever lose comments are the times that I forget to copy them first. At least that's how it always seems.

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