Seerücken-Route

A peaceful symbiosis in Scharenwald forest: old concealed bunkers from World War II and seldom-seen forest communities – e.g. wood bedstraw-hornbeam-mixed forest – share the quiet forest reserve on the Rhine. The medieval town of Diessenhofen also lies on the river. The Stammheimer vineyard region is flat, with many splendid timber-framed buildings, a fine example the Gasthof Hirschen in Oberstammheim, a building masterpiece from 1684 with a three-storey gable.

Meanwhile, with the little Hüttwilersee lake glinting below, you slowly climb the Seerücken, the flat hilly ridge that faithfully accompanies the busy Bodensee. The route leads unspectacularly and quietly through undulating pastures and tiny woods, past isolated individual farmsteads with impressive walnut trees. The number of orchards increases, whether uniform low-stem systems or high-stem individualists, apple and pear juice flows freely, this is called «Mostindien» for good reason.

The two Bommer ponds are romantic, the inns few, the boulders at Schwaderloh a reminder of the Ice Age, the panoramic views of the Alps spectacular. The expanse of the Bodensee appears occasionally in the distance but the route keeps to the tranquil hinterland before finally reaching the lake shore at the small town of Arbon.