Another day outside of boring, lame old Munich. I just had to get away from the sight of Trachten (the name for the traditional clothing of men’s Lederhosen, and women’s Dirndls) everywhere. So I got as far as a nearly 3 hour train ride would take me (1 way). I headed to the island of Lindau in the Bodensee, also known as Lake Konstanz/Constance (Depending on your language). This is the place I mentioned I wanted to stay at after leaving in Grindelwald in Switzerland, but it was too pricey and inconvenient to stay, so I made it a day trip here, which I think ended up being much better.

Lindau is a really neat island with a historic old town on it. The island itself is not far out in the water, and has a train bridge on one end, with a vehicle bridge on the other. There is an iconic lion statue on one jetty in the harbor, and a large lighthouse on the other jetty. It’s a great fun island for walking around and seeing things, as well as shopping – unlike Nördlingen and Landsberg. It has a museum which was closed all day, and 2 large churches, about a 10 second walk from each other. It is indeed about a 3 hour trip one way, with a very short train connection in between, but it was definitely worth it! The only thing I regret is not being able to make it to the mini golf course just off the island.

Lindau was originally founded as a monastery sometime around 882, and the coat of arms is a linden tree, as the name Lindau probably also came from the Linden tree. The island also served as a fort, as there are several areas with defensive fortifications and a couple former barracks.

As for the name of the post, it is quite interesting, the three borders of southern Germany, the ‘tail’ of Austria, and the northern border of Switzerland all meet. (Though of course the border between Switzerland and Germany here is the lake.) The “Island Of Three Corners” is just a cool sounding name I came up with, it’s not any kind of name anyone uses.

Images here!