Hello Guys,
as I have been on vacation for several weeks, I was not able to write a new blog post until now. Normally I would have spent the last two weeks on a road trip with my best friend Julia. We wanted to travel through Europe, maybe to the south of France or throw Italy. Sadly the van of her dad, which we wanted to use for the tour, broke one week before our trip. Also, more regions were declared as risk regions due to Covid-19. That is why we decided to spend our vacation at my place in Kempten, Bavaria (Germany). In this blog post, I will show you how we spent our two weeks. Maybe you get inspired to travel to the Allgäu, too. Especially if you can not travel far this year and you want to stay in Germany, here are some insights into what we did. I split the blog post into two parts, as I give a quick summary of each day with some tips of mine. Without splitting, the blog post would have been way too long. 🙂 In this blog post, I talk about the first week, while part two will be published in two weeks.
We arrived in Kempten on Monday, the 31st of August. As we arrived later that evening, we only went to the store to buy supplies and cooked a mushroom ragout with bread dumplings (Semmelknödel), a specialty in Bavaria. You can buy them, for example, at Aldi for a small price. They are not too bad when you add a nice sauce.
It was very rainy on Tuesday (09.01.), so we stayed at home. We only tried to visit the downtown for around 30 minutes, which was enough to get us soaked with water. We spent the day playing games like Carcassonne and Qwixx, which are very funny even when you play them with only two people. Especially Carcassone was our favorite, which is why we played it like 3 times per day. In the evening we went bouldering in the Swoboda Alpin at Kempten, which is a good thing to do when it is raining. To finish the evening right, we went to Orange Octopus to get a party pizza. If you go there to get it, you only pay 14 euros for a party pizza, which is a great deal. Also, it tastes soooooo good!
As the market in Kempten takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays we decided to visit Kempten on this day (09.02.) by starting with the market. You can buy very good meat and sausages from a stand which only sells organic products. The price is more expensive but it is worth the taste and high quality. I recommend Bauernwurst and Knoblauchwurst. We also bought some olives and cream cheese called Schwiegermutterkäse with Fladenbrot for our lunch and strolled along the streets of Kempten. There are many shops to visit, surrounded by beautiful houses and streets. The next place we visited is called Burghalde and is something like the ruins of a castle. It only takes some minutes to mount to the top, where you have a view of the city and the mountains. The last place we discovered was the Cambodunum. In fact, Kempten is declared as the oldest city in Germany. The Cambodunum park includes ruins from gothic times and a museum of a therme, which we did not visit because of the high price (4 euros for a small museum). As it was a beautiful day, we decided to eat in the park of Kempten, where you have a nice view and benches to sit on. We took some coffee, the cream cheese, Fladenbrot, and the olives and had some nice picnic. We finished the day with ice cream and again some games.
To do something more exciting, we went to the Alpsee Bergwelt near to the large Alpsee on Thursday (09.03.). For 32 euros, it is possible to take a ride to the top of the mountain, go to the climbing park for three hours and go back down by coaster or by chairlift. We fought our fear of heights in the climbing park and had a great view while descending with the coaster. It is the longest coaster in Germany! Just so you know, when you are using the coaster in the afternoon in summer, you have to wait up until one and a half hours. We think that it is worth it. If you get hungry, you can reach a nice Alm within 10 minutes. The food is regional and very tasty for an adequate price. Also, you can take beautiful hikes around there. Next to the climbing park is a playground for children and there are many cute alpacas. Therefore, Alpsee Bergwelt is a nice trip for everyone.
View while mounting to the Alm 
The Alm
Maybe you already heard of Lindau, a very beautiful city at the Bodensee. As it takes only one hour to go there from Kempten, we spent Friday (09.04.) visiting the city and enjoying a boat tour on the lake. The boat tour starts right at the bus station and takes one and a half hours, for 15.80 euros. It was very nice to sit in the sun, watching the sea and the mountains around it from another view. If you go to Lindau by car, I advise you to park your car in a parking lot next to the city and take the bus. It costs 5 euros for the parking ticket, including a bus ticket for the day (up to 5 people). We parked our car at the (P+R) Blauwiese parking lot, as this is where the shuttle bus starts and as there is a WC.
On the morning of Saturday (09.05.), we went back to the market in Kempten to eat Weißwurst and Brezel as breakfast. This is a traditional food in Bavaria. Also, there is a stand with fresh coffee such as Cappuccino and Latte Macchiato next to the church. They offer normal milk and oat milk, in case you do not drink cow’s milk. To enjoy the sunny weather, we went back to the large Alpsee after breakfast. This time we went for a swim and again played Carcassone, our favorite game. The water is very clear and not too cold. You have a great view from the lake and you can either sit on a bench or lie on the grass. It is easy to get into the water, with no disgusting mud on the ground of the lake. I hate that muddy feeling you get in many small lakes. Also, there are small stands with fresh coffee, something to eat (like Käsespätzle), and Ice Cream. The only negative point is the missing toilets. In the evening we watched the movie Das schönste Mädchen der Welt, which was so good. If you like romantic films and rap music, I recommend this german movie!
As the weather was rainy again on Sunday (09.06.), we decided to play games and go bouldering again, like on Tuesday.
So that was the first week of our vacation in Kempten. I hope it gives you an idea of how to spend your holidays in the Allgäu. Feel free to click on the links to get further information if you want to visit the places yourself! If you have any questions or want some more insights, just write me a message. 🙂
Love, Eileen