Kempton
After visiting Bavaria we began making our way back towards France, stopping along the way at a few towns in the Black Forest region of Germany. The first stop along the way was Kempton, which to be honest, really wasn't anying special.
It had a nice square, but not much else to see or do. It could have been the day or the dreary weather but the town was mostly quiet when we were there. We only spent about an hour, taking a brief walk to stretch our legs before continuing on to Ravensburg.
I did like some of the architecture though and a statue that we happened to stumble across.
The statue was delightfully creepy with these child animal hybrid figures with blank stares and sunken faces.
It was weird and interesting and I liked it. But we didn't stay long in town and we didn't do much exploring after that.
Ravensburg
We arrived in Ravensburg in the early afternoon and ended up liking the city quite a bit. It was a clean and modern but still managed to maintain a lot of its traditional architecture and charm.
The town has three city gates and 10 medeival fortification towers surrounding a well kept old town center. It's kind of a perfect mix of new and old. Ravensburg is also home to the famous Ravensburger puzzles and games company, which is kind of a fun fact about the city. I believe there is a puzzle museum in town as well but it wasn't something that we did during our stay.
The one downside while we were there was that there was a ton of construction happening in the city, which made for a lot of noise and a few unsightly areas.
The street in the plaza above, directly behind where the photo was taken, was completely torn up and stripped down to the dirt.
They were updating the old cobblestones to a more modern version, which you can see in the photo. The finished product looked quite nice I think.
Our favorite part of our stay in Ravensburg was walking up to the Veitsburg castle.
The castle itself was nothing special but the views of the city were spectacular.
The path to the top is a series of switchbacks that wind their way through a large garden.
Benches along the way make for an excellent spot to sit and watch the sunset.
We'd walk up one tier then stop for a few minutes and look back at the falling sun then continue up the path and do the same again.
We saw quite a few people sitting on the benches with pizza boxes and beer having a sort of dinner time pic-nic in the park.
I got the impression that this was a regular activity for young and old couples alike.
At the top of the hill is a large cement platform with a prime view of the city and setting sun. Many people were gathered there, all waiting to watch the sun set beyond the horizon.
If there was a "must do" thing in town then I would say that this was it. Watching the sunset from the Veitsburg castle was definitely our favorite part of our stay in town and a highlight of our trip. It was a simple thing and completely free to do, but sometimes it's the little things that really stand out in the end.