Allgau

Allgau is a popular region for vacationing German tourists because it's so down to earth. The region is very hilly with wide meadows and small forests, occasionally interrupted by lakes, and surrounded by mountains that often reach into the clouds. To complete your image of the Allgau, it's very quiet except for the wind and the lowing of farm animals, the air is pleasantly humid and it smells like wet cow. I will forever associate this odor with this place, and it is not unpleasant. So to better understand where I've been, make sure that when you look at the pictures I will soon post, you breathe deep into a wet cow as you do.

The Allgau is dotted with villages consisting of small clusters of houses, usually around 20, with a church in the middle and surrounded by pastures. A few walls are painted with frescoes, many farm houses come with barns, and all of the pastures have milk cows idly grazing. The village I stayed in was called Zell, an average place for the Allgau and extremely pleasant to live in. Two castle ruins sit within hiking distance, and unfortunately when I visited the weather decided it would be rainy. But a morning of rainy hiking around the ruins only added to the experience.

Hopferau, a nearby and slightly larger village, offers a three-in-one tour of the village cheese dairy, the local church, and the brewery. The cheese dairy uses milk from all those grazing milkcows in massive quantities to make huge wheels of cheese, sometimes up to 80 kg. The church is so loved that the residents gather on days to have a church cleaning celebration, and one resident keeps up an impressive display of fresh flowers. The brewery makes the best beer I've ever tasted and bakes fresh bavarian pretzels to go with it.