So I have been on a roll recently in making Abner music videos.  About a week after our trip on the Eistobel, we took Abner on another hike around Überlingen.  According to T’s research, there was a tower (called Hohenbodman) hidden in the hills around our town with a lovely view of the area.  Naturally we had to go.  We had intended to do a full 11 km walk, but it was so hot that day that we didn’t want to overheat Abner. But the view was definitely worth it!

If you are interested in discovering this tower for yourself….here’s the location:

To get there, we walked through the well known Aachtobel (Tobel meaning Valley) where we came acrossed a chapel built into the walls of the canyon. It is known as Maria am Stein (Maria at the Stone).  Legends say that the chapel was built by Albert V. Bodmann upon returning home after being captive in Turkey.  He had made a vow that the place where would first see his native castle would be where he would construct a church to the virgen Mary.  The first reference to this chapel is in writing on February 24th, 1550 (a very exact date, I know). Unfortunately from where we stood at the chapel, there was no castle to be found.  I can only assume that was long since torn down.

It was also still a considerable walk from the chapel to the Tower, whose first mention was in 1325 as a watch tower for the Hohenbodman castle.  The castle itself was burned down in the 30 Years War by the troops of Konrad Widerholt and was not rebuilt. In short, history is cool!

Anyway, there’s not much else to tell in words as I could in pictures and video…so without further ado:

Bis nächste Woche!