Lake Constance (and Environs)

Despite Stein’s impending examinations, a friend came to visit her in Freiburg-im-Breisgau in the spring of 1916, presumably to keep her company as she studied. Much to the chagrin of Stein’s family, however, the two girls planned a few adventures for their time together – one short trip to the Black Forest and a weekend excursion to Lake Constance (German: Bodensee).

In her autobiography, Stein documents her outbound train journey to Lake Constance in remarkable detail, naming the different mountains they passed on the way. This might be because the region through which they traveled – the Black Forest – is renown for its picturesque beauty, or it might be because the journey was made memorable when the young travelers encountered the first challenge of the trip: because she worried that Professor Husserl would think badly of her for taking a trip so close to her exams, Stein neglected to mention her travel plans to him. Imagine her surprise when she spotted him and his family on the train!

To get to Lake Constance, Stein rode the full length of the famous Höllentalbahn from Freiburg-im-Breisgau to Donauschingen. The train is named after the landscape through which it transports visitors – Höllental translates to the “Valley of Hell,” an apt name for this Stygian landscape. Stein writes of the journey:

We rode the whole way through the Höllental as far as Donauschingen. There we took a train down to Singen. A short while before that, when from the Feldberg we had seen the Hegauer mountains rising to the east like crests of foam, I had decided we would visit the castle Hohentwiel. We stayed overnight in Singen.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take the Höllentalbahn this time round, but instead drove through the valley by car, which was itself an amazing experience. And following Stein’s footsteps, I made my way to Singen, a town in the Landkreis (greater area) of Constance, famous for its fortress ruins at Hohentwiel. As Stein reflected on her time at the ruins, she recalled:

It was wonderful to climb the mountain in the evening, to wander about in the ancient castle, to think of Ekkehart and of Schiller’s youth, here where many a captive once languished in the fortress.

Isn’t that a bit macabre, Edith?

On a drizzly Sunday morning, I drove up to the Hohentwiel from the nearby Beuron. After paying a small fee to walk through the preservation society’s history exhibit at the base of the mountain, I began my ascent – and was very happy I had worn tennis shoes. A few photos from my wanderings around the ruins.

After my climb, I stopped at a small cafe in Singen to get a bite to eat and connect to WiFi before I continued along Stein’s itinerary to go, at last, to Lake Constance.

In the morning we were off the the lake. To the sound of church bells, an old woman ferried us in a rowboat from Radolfzell to the island of Reichenau. The monastery made little impression on me on that occasion. Vineyards under a deep blue sky, shimmering sunlight, and the lake’s green waved lapping the shores – those are my most vivid recollections of that day.

I next headed to Radolfzell, a small town on Lake Constance, where I enjoyed a walk through a nature reserve. Because I was visiting during the off-season, I was unable to take a boat to the island of Reichenau. This ended up being alright, though, as I was able to make a scenic drive along the shore of Lake Constance and across a beautiful land bridge.

I made a two-hour power tour of the island of Reichenau, walking from one end of the island to the other and back. I enjoyed seeing its three chapels (one of which is built on the foundations of the ancient monastery) and lapped up the spring weather while I was at it. While Stein’s most prominent memory might have been the natural wonders of the island, I most fondly recall the refreshing strawberry sorbet I got to finish off the afternoon.