An Island on Lake Constance, Germany: Accessible by Bike, Crowned by UNESCO
▍ The Dawn of a Monastic Island
In 724 AD, a wandering monk named Pirmin established a Benedictine monastery on this island. Over the following centuries, spanning from the Carolingian to the Ottonian dynasties, Reichenau flourished as one of Europe's most vital centers for religion, academia, and art.
At the turn of the first millennium, the island's scriptorium was among Europe's premier producers of manuscripts—those meticulously hand-painted Bibles and psalters were the absolute pinnacle of art at the time. The island was also home to a true genius: the monk Hermann der Lahme (Hermann the Cripple). Despite severe physical disabilities from childhood that left him barely able to walk or speak, he mastered astronomy, mathematics, music, and history. His astronomical and musical theories influenced subsequent generations for hundreds of years.
Three Romanesque churches, built between the 9th and 11th centuries, still stand on the island and remain in use today. In 2000, the entire monastic island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site; fast forward to 2023, the surviving manuscripts from the island were also inscribed on the register—more than 1,300 years later, these books are still being rediscovered by the world.
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▍ From an Herb Garden to a Vegetable Haven
But Reichenau isn't just stuck in the past.
Walahfrid Strabo, a scholar from the scriptorium, didn't just write books; he also cultivated herbs and spices in the monastery—this is widely believed to be the starting point of the island's vegetable-growing tradition. Today, some 1,200 years later, the island boasts around 150 hectares of open farmland and 40 hectares of greenhouses, yielding nearly 15,000 tons of vegetables annually. It stands as one of Germany's most important vegetable-producing regions.
More often than not, the tomatoes, cucumbers, and greens that end up on our family's dinner table hail straight from this island—
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▍ A Causeway and 3,000 Locals
As the largest island in Lake Constance, Reichenau stretches about 5 kilometers long and 1.6 kilometers wide. It's connected to the mainland by a poplar-lined causeway completed in 1838—now, it takes just a few minutes to hop onto the island by car or bike. Our family almost always pedals our way there. Riding along that causeway is surprisingly soothing; with the poplar trees flanking both sides, it feels like cruising through a buffer zone of time between the mainland and the island.
The island has a permanent population of only about 3,000. You won't find lines of tourist buses here; instead, the roads are mostly shared by bicycles and agricultural machinery.
History, vegetables, and slow living—three seemingly unrelated things—have coexisted in harmony on this little island for over 1,300 years.
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▍ Biking Over, Just for a Good Meal
With all this talk about history and vegetables, to be completely honest, our main itinerary whenever we visit Reichenau is usually: bike there, find a restaurant on the island, and eat.
The local restaurants' signature is their fish dishes. While there are countless ways to prepare lake fish, my absolute favorite is the fried fish—no exaggeration, the best fried fish I've ever had was right here on this island.
Even more mind-blowing than the fish is the salad. The only word to describe the flavor is "fresh"!
After all, the salads served at every restaurant here use vegetables straight from the source, because the restaurant and the farm might just be separated by a single road.
The dressing paired with these salads is equally special, offering a tangy, incredibly appetizing kick. I first tasted it at a few restaurants near Konstanz and was super curious because I had never encountered anything like it anywhere else. After doing some digging, I found out it's a legacy family brand from the Lake Constance area called Brasch Salat-Sauce: In the late 1970s, a restaurant in Konstanz first served their house-recipe dressing alongside salads made from Reichenau vegetables. It was such a massive hit that they started commercial production in 1988, and in 2004, the factory moved directly to Reichenau Island, where it remains today. If you ever have the chance to travel around this area, you might want to keep an eye out for this brand in the local supermarkets.
Besides eating, there are plenty of spots along the island's lakeshore where you can just sit and zone out. The monastery itself is spectacular and definitely worth stepping into for a look, and there are several laid-back cafes nearby. For our family, Reichenau is the perfect weekend micro-getaway: you don't need to dedicate a whole day to it, just biking over, grabbing lunch, and chilling by the lake makes for a wonderfully fulfilling afternoon.