A day in Schleitheim

It was my birthday weekend, and we celebrated with various groups of friends and colleagues at various locations. We took a day off and made it a three days celebration 🙂 I love birthdays and I'm excited to celebrate each year!

We started in Schleitheim where we spent the first day of our celebration. My friends organized a brunch event on a terrace of their house with delicious food, beautiful decorations and thoughtful gifts. We spent all morning and early afternoon with them and then we went to explore the village on our own as so much attention is draining my energy and I needed some time with my husband alone.

Schleitheim is located in the canton of Schaffhausen and the region called Klettgau directly at the border with Germany. It's a picturesque region with hills covered with vineyards and fruit trees. It is about 25 minutes drive from our home, but it was only our second visit there as usually we travel to the Alps or lakes instead.

Let's see what we find here!

It is a small village with less than 500 inhabitants, but rich social life. Everyone knows everyone and people organize many events including the entire village. I was also surprised to hear that there are plenty of nationalities living there. Foreigners usually live in bigger cities, so it was interesting to meet people from India, Egypt and Brazil!

You would think that an afternoon in such village would be quiet, but you are wrong. It took me some time to be able to take a photo without cars coming from each direction. We might have seen all the cars in the village! 🙂

There is even a small hotel in the heart of the village...

We walked towards the church on top of a hill when we crossed this small creek. It looks picturesque, but let me tell you that the smell there was horrible. I think they had some problems with canalisation, so I ran away as quickly as I could...

We could see the church on the other side of the creek already. As I mentioned, Klettgau is a hilly region and each village is built on some smaller or bigger hills, so be ready for some hiking.

When I was walking up the hill there was a pretty orange cat following me. It was miaowing and approaching me quickly, but I'm scared of cats, so I started to walk faster. Luckily, soon it gave up and laid on the back showing me its belly, hoping for some belly rubs. Well, I didn't give in and disappeared behind a corner. I was tempted to rub its belly, but I'm scared of cats for life as I got bitten once (for NO reason).

The first church which was built in this place dates back to 600. There were some graves found from that period during the renovation of the current church.

The church as we see it today was built in 1869 which makes it a rather young construction. It looks a bit like the church in my hometown except of its tower that dates back to 1901. It is decorated with colourful bricks reminding me a little bit of roofs in Barcelona (just a little bit). History of the church

The gate to the church was open, so let's have a look around the garden!

I wonder if it is allowed to walk on the grass as I can imagine having a picnic here and enjoying the views of Klettgau.

All houses that we saw in Schleithem had certain architectural style typical for this region. It was like a walk back in the time...

It's a great time of the year as now all the fields are full of crops and they look like a perfect patchwork blanket from afar.

Even in such a small village there are three museums! One of them we can see on the left next to the manse.

It's called The Museum Schleitheirmertal and you can learn there about the history of Schleitheim, geology, archaeology, crafts and Christianity. It is the biggest buildings in the village.

A few more views from the hill before going back down...

And here we are! We spent some time walking around and were thirsty, so we stopped by a local café for a drink.

It turned out to be such a special place and I'm happy to take you with me on the tour!

As you can see it used to serve a various purpose in the past. Today, it is a charming place with local drinks and also some locally produced items that you can purchase, but it was a factory owned by the grandparents of the current owner. She inherited the factory and changed it to a café with hair salon next to it.

She left the old machines there to remind her of the family and also to show others what they were doing. They were one of the wealthiest families in Schleitheim producing flour as well as having cows for milk. We asked her about it and she took us around the property and talked a lot about her family. She was very proud. She also showed us a photo album with photos from the beginning of the 20th century.

The property was even on the postcards! (on the right)

And this is how it looks like after she finished the renovation. On the left is the café and on the right is her hair salon.

Once we finished our drinks we said our goodbyes and walked a bit more...

The villagers take great care of their homes. Everything is groomed and well maintained. It was nice to walk around.

In the back we can see the townhall...

These houses look so pretty from outside, but they are functional, so not so pretty outside. The ceilings are low and there is not much light coming through the small windows, so it's rather dark inside.