Summer Vibes in the Lake Constance Area
Friday, July 17th, 2026Last week I spent a one more beautiful time with my friends Manfred and Sabine at their home in Heiligenberg in the north of Lake Constance. A relaxing little group life time filled with exchanges, excursions and meeting friends who came for a visit. Manfred and Sabine are very hospitable, and it’s always a deep pleasure to be able to spend a few days with them.
I arrived from Switzerland just at noon time for the Thursday World Health and Healing prayer together with Manfred, joining the zoom group meditation transmission. Manfred later took me to the Keller-Werft, a little wharf with an Italian restaurant directly at the lake in Überlingen. Sabine joined us coming from her job at a social care organisation, and later two more friends came, living in the surrounding. We were sitting in the open huge hall of the restaurant directly next to the lake – a holiday feeling start. Later in the afternoon, we took a refreshing bath in the lake.
The next morning, before the heat of the day set in, I went for a walk up to Heiligenberg, along a small road. Through the bushes, there was a sweeping view across the countryside and Lake Constance.
In a small grotto, fresh water flowed from the mountain. At the edge stood a painting of a woman with long hair, depicted as the ‘goddess of the spring’, alongside a few painted wooden eggs. A blue wooden banner expressed gratitude for the water of Heiligenberg.
Later, Manfred and I picked a large potful of redcurrants in the garden, and I learnt ‘fish yoga’ – watching the goldfish in the pond, and giving them water and food. A net over the little pond keeps the herons away.
A red kite would often circle above us, using the updraft from the mountain to carry itself upwards.
Friday afternoon, I went to Mettnau with Sabine, where we went for a swim in the beach park. For our evening meditation, we found a shady spot by a seesaw. When we opened our eyes after a quarter of an hour, two girls were looking at us as they waited to jump on the seesaw.
Later, we went to an open-air concert venue, where the Bremen-based band Skupa was playing energetic “Flamenco-Balkan-Fusion” songs (Insta) – music from Eastern Europe and Spain – a thrilling ambiance under the beginning night sky. Here’s an audio clip from another concert.
Sabine and Manfred had organised a summer party in the garden for their group on Saturday afternoon – but many cancelled because of the intense heat. To our great delight, however, a dear old friend of us all arrived by taxi from Munich for two days. We made preparations in the morning, and a few people turned up in the afternoon. With a group meditation and lively conversations with friends and new acquaintances, the party was a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
On Sunday morning, Sabine and I drove to Überlingen. We managed to catch part of the ‘Swedish Procession’. It is a tradition celebrated since centuries still in three towns, commemorating the successful defence against sieges by the Swedes during the Thirty Years’ War. The procession route was beautifully decorated with flowers and small altars, on which prayers for peace had been arranged in the flowers.
Afterwards, Sabine and I strolled along the lake and a park, and I could see where she worked.
In the evening, when the heat of the day had cooled down a bit, we had a second stroll along the lake together with Manfred and our friend from Munich.
Monday, the visit slowly came to close. Before leaving, Sabine wanted to show us an old chapel by the lake, whose murals were only uncovered at the start of the 20th century. We had to walk quite a distance from the car park to the church, but it was a real gem.
The Sylvester Chapel near Goldbach, a district of Überlingen, is a small pre-Romanesque church on the shores of Lake Constance. The chapel is one of the oldest churches in southern Germany.
Of particular significance are its 9th/10th-century wall paintings – an Ottonian pictorial cycle depicting scenes from the life of Jesus Christ and other scenes, created by painters from Reichenau Abbey.
Saying good-bye, starting the way home – up a hill along narrow country lanes, onto the motorway. The heat and heavy traffic transported me back to another world, with a treasure wealth of profound impressions in my heart.
