I come from the area of Rottweil, a wonderfully creative corner, halfway between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. If you want to spend a weekend at Lake Constance after a long business week in Stuttgart, you might enjoy the tips:
Gastro:
Weinstube Russ
Bruderschaftsgasse 7
78628 Rottweil
Mon: Closed
Tue-Sun: 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Above all, I associate home with smells, tastes and memories – and with food. In fact, after my grandmother’s death, I spent years hunting for grandma’s recipe for her legendary herd apple salad. There is exactly one in a Rottweiler institution to this day. The wine bar, which is still somewhat unconventionally called “Russenstüble” by the Rottweilers – named after the former landlady Maria Russ, by the way – is one of these unchanged places, as if from a bygone era. In 2018, the Russ, which is actually officially called “Bruderschaftsstüble”, had been closed – actually forever – until an entrepreneur remembered the Fasnets days, when he was allowed to sit under the table in Russ as a child. Now that the restaurant has been lovingly renovated and meticulously restored, it feels “the same as always”. If you want, you can take a seat at the historic regulars’ table, above which the historic Rottweiler fool’s table hangs to this day – how could it be otherwise. Nowhere else can you find a more honest Swabian potato salad.
Hotel Restaurant Maier
Poststraße 1-3
88048 Friedrichshafen-Fischbach
www.hotel-maier.de
Lake Constance is one of the most beautiful gourmet regions in the country. And because the people here have always known how to eat and drink well, there are many extremely good restaurants away from the tourist centers. Just like in the tranquil Friedrichshafen-Fischbach. As a child, we rode our bikes here to the campsite – and our mother was glad to God that we didn’t camp somewhere wild by the lake. Today, right next door to the campsite, the Hotel Maier is perhaps the better choice. The restaurant “Die Speiserei” offers everything that makes this holiday area so special: a loving, not over-the-top interior – the old wall panelling tells its story – excellent cuisine and the best products, from sustainable and regional origin. The meal is accompanied by first-class wines from the lake. That’s what home tastes like.
Museum:
Museum Haus Dix
Otto-Dix-Weg 6
78343 Gaienhofen-Hemmenhofen
T: +49 (0)7735.937160
www.kunstmuseum-stuttgart.de/museum-haus-dix
When the lake is overrun by tourists, there is an island of peace that is little known: the Höri peninsula. Otto Dix lived here with his family for over thirty years. Dix, who is one of the most important German artists of the 20th century, was dismissed from his professorship at the Dresden Academy by the National Socialists in 1933. As a result, he moved to Lake Constance with his wife Martha and their three children. The house, in a beautiful location, gives an impression of the historical reality of the life of the Dix family. On the walls, reproductions refer to the masterpieces of Otto Dix, which once adorned the rooms and are now in museums all over the world. A special highlight awaits in the basement: Here you can marvel at colourful murals that Dix designed for a carnival party and which were only rediscovered in 2012 during renovation work.
Shopping tip:
If you’ve ever been to the Höri, you can’t leave without a culinary rarity in your luggage: the “Höri Bülle”, a red onion variety that only thrives here on the peninsula in Lake Constance. The “Höri-Bülle” is considered a delicacy among gourmets and may only be produced in its home country due to an EU quality label as a “protected geographical indication”. Here, the mild onion has been processed for generations into Büllebrot or Bülledünne, a kind of onion pizza. Her fame has sliced her favorite onion wafer-thin as a mild spiciness on a plate of sausage salad. The onion is sold directly from the Höri farmers, at street stalls or at weekly markets in the region, where you will find the stalls of the Fürst family. One of the most beautiful weekly markets takes place in Radolfzell, around the cathedral – Wednesdays 7.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. and Saturdays 7.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.
