Germany and the Enclave Tour Autumn 2015, Part 7: Büsingen, Germany in Switzerland

Date of visit: 26 October 2015 Weather: fine

I don’t know which is which, since they are in the same German-speaking area anyway…

One of the main themes of this year’s event was « Enclaves.

I’m sure you all know this, but I’d like to explain again about enclaves.

「飛び地」とは「他国の領土によって本土から隔絶された場所」のことで、具体的には次の2つのタイプがあります。

1. 周囲のすべてを他国に囲まれた、内陸の飛び地。（例）ナヒチェヴァン、バールレ
2. 陸上では他国の領土によって隔絶されているが、海などに面している飛び地。（例）カリーニングラード、アラスカ

（出所）吉田一郎、世界飛び地大全 (角川ソフィア文庫)

The historical background of some enclaves is related to territorial disputes, so some of them are not easily accessible to ordinary tourists. However, enclaves in Europe (especially Western Europe) are basically peaceful.

In fact, we visited Campione d’Italia, an Italian enclave in Switzerland, during our trip to Italy in September.

This was an enclave in the southern area of Switzerland.

Büsingen, Germany in Switzerland

今回の旅行では、そんな西ヨーロッパの飛び地を2ヶ所巡る予定です。その第一弾がこの日訪れた[highlight]「ビュージンゲン Büsingen 」[/highlight]という街です。

Let’s check the location with Google Map. Let’s start with a wide area map. The city is located in the north of Zurich, near the German-Swiss border on the west side of Lake Constance. You can clearly see that the border is complicated.

If you zoom in a little more, you can see this. I tried to show Switzerland and Germany. The areas that are not covered by the gray mesh are German territory. You can see that it is indeed an enclave.

なぜこのような飛び地になったのかというと、基本的には中世ヨーロッパの封建制の関係で、ざまざまな諸侯の領土がモザイク状になっていたことに由来しています。そんな経緯もあってスイスの中にぽっかりとできてしまったドイツの飛び地「ビュージンゲン」ですが、住民の大半はスイスへの帰属を望んだものの、スイス側がドイツへ渡す代替地を用意することができず、結局そのままドイツ領として存続することになってしまったとのことです。（「世界飛び地大全 (角川ソフィア文庫)」より）

Büssingen, what kind of city is it really?

So, we drive our car to such an enclave. From St. Gallen, we took the route to Schaffhausen once by highway and from there to the east by ordinary road. Can we arrive there by sunset?

And we arrived at our destination Büsingen in less than 20 minutes after getting off the highway at Schaffhausen.

ここが町の入口。スイスを走っていたのですが、ここからはドイツです。一般道で入る場合、ドイツの「ここから街です」的な標識は黄色の素地に街の名前となります。これを見てああここはドイツかと実感しました。

しかし、ドイツとはいえ、ドイツのO2（ミュンヘンで買ったプリペイドSIM）は圏外。

At any rate, since there is no time, head to the center of the city and park in a suitable space. Now sightseeing. I’m not sure if there’s anything that can be done to see what’s there (laughs).

I didn’t know what to expect, so I just walked around the town. There were some scenes that made me think it was Switzerland and Germany. For example, a telephone booth.

Both Swiss Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are located on the premises.

And the nameplate showing the post office.

Since it was night, it was not open, but there was a city hall here, and a tourist information center.

It looks like there are a lot of things to see on this forum, is that true?

ところが、意外や意外、さらに街を散策してみると、思った以上に風情があってびっくり。確かに見どころはほとんどなさそうなのですが、このビュージンゲン、ライン川沿いに静かに佇む、とても素敵な街であることに気が付きました。

And there were only a few, but there were also some tourist hotels, which were also quite nice.

うわあー、ここ、ゆっくりする価値大いにあるかもー！

However, I can’t cancel the hotel because I’ve already booked it. Moreover, it was already past six o’clock in the evening. Autumn is deepening in Germany. I don’t want to drive at night in a strange place.

So I was a little disappointed, but I decided to leave the city early after only about 15 minutes of stay. I would like to come here again slowly.

Rely on the car navigation system to get to today’s accommodation.

We had a hotel in the central square of the German city of Konstanz, about 50 minutes east of where we were staying for the day. We were heading there, but as I mentioned before, there was no signal, and Google Maps navigation system didn’t work.

But fortunately, this car was equipped with a car navigation system. We managed to use it to get to our destination, Konstanz.

As a matter of fact, I got O2 soon after I left Büsingen, and Google Maps navigation was able to serve me, but I decided to use the car’s navigation system to get to Konstanz.

The traffic jam in the suburbs of Konstanz was very heavy, but thanks to this navigation system, we arrived at the city of Konstanz without getting lost. We found the hotel without hesitation. Moreover, there was a good parking space in front of the hotel (we chose the hotel after checking the parking space on Google Maps), and we were able to check in the hotel before 8pm.

一休みしてからレストラン探しです。お腹が空きました。（続く）