Page 269 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Austria

T Y ROL and VOR a RLBERG  267

z Bodensee dirtiest rivers. However, for
several years now it has met
Road map A4. £ @ n Bodensee-
Alpenrhein Tourismus, Bregenz, all the standards set for
Römerstrasse 2 (05574) 43 443-0. environmental protection.
∑ bodensee-vorarlberg.com Today, Bodensee forms not so
much a border as a link
Bodensee, or Lake Constance between the countries that lie
as it is also known, is one of the on its shores. For Austria it is a
largest and best-known highly con ve n ient transport
European lakes. It divides its route to western Europe, while
waters between the three for the inhabitants of the
countries surrounding it: Austria, surrounding towns and villages,
Germany and Switzerland. as well as for the visitors that
Austria actually only claims a arrive here from the neigh-
very small part of it: the total bouring countries in great
area of the lake is 538.5 sq km numbers every summer, it
(208 sq miles), of which only 38 provides excellent facilities for 17th-century lace in the Stickerei museum
sq km (14.7 sq miles) is Austrian. water sports and relaxation. in Lustenau
Bodensee is 74 km (44 miles) The mountains around the
long, and as such the largest town of Bregenz extend right x Lustenau
lake in the Alps. Once the lake up to the water, creating a Road map A4. * 22,000. £ @
was much larger, but with time pic tur esque setting for the n Rathausstrasse 1 (05577) 81810.
deposits carried by the Rhine count less artistic events that
have reduced its size. The Rhine take place here, such as the A fairly large town, Lustenau
flows into the lake in a broad Bregenz Spring and the lies 5 km (3 miles) north of
delta, wholly in Austrian internationally acclaimed the mouth of the Rhine as it
territory. Having passed through Bregenz Festival. Many joins Bodensee, on the border
the entire length of Bodensee, perfor mances take place on with Switzerland. It is famous
it emerges in a water fall as a the famous Seebühne or for its beautiful embroidery
turbulent mountain river near floating stage. and lace-making, popular
Schaffhausen, in Switzerland. A number of interesting through out Austria.
The countryside around the towns line the shores of It was at Lustenau that the
lake benefits from a pleasant, Bodensee, including Lindau, Romans under the leadership
mode rate climate. Even before Konstanz with its flower island of Emperor Constantine II
World War II, Bodensee was of Mainau, and Friedrichshafen defeated the Alemanni tribes
considered to be one of on the German side, which can who had risen up against the
Europe’s most polluted lakes, be reached by ferry or pleasure empire. The earliest historic
just as the Rhine was one of the craft sailing from Bregenz. records date from 887, when
the settlement belonged to
the Carolingians. Until 1806, it
was a free territory within the
empire. In 1814, after the
Congress of Vienna, Lustenau
came under Austrian rule.
The Museum Rhein-Schauen
documents the history of the
local people and the Rhine. It is
also home to the Rheinbähnle,
a narrow-gauge train line that
takes passengers along the shores
of the Rhine to the outmost
point of the Rhine delta in Lake
Constance, or to an old depot
and quarry where materials for
the Rhine dams were once taken.
A little electric engine pulls the
passenger cars and, on occasion,
a steam engine takes its place.

E Museum Rhein-Schauen
Höchsterstrasse 4. Tel (05577) 20 539.
Open 1–5:30pm Wed, Fri–Sun.
Rheinbähnle: 3pm Fri–Sun from the
Serene blue waters of Bodensee also known as Lake Constance museum. ∑ rheinschauen.at

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