Lake Constance

At 11.06pm Central European Summer Time, they took off for Brussels with Campioni initially flying.

The routes brought the two aircraft towards the Lake Constance region, where Germany, Switzerland and Austria meet.

The Tupolev approached from the east while the Boeing came north from Italy through Swiss airspace.

Both flights operated under instrument flight rules, following clearances issued by controllers who coordinated their routes and cruising heights.

The documentation and briefings had not clearly explained all these operational consequences.

Neighbouring German centres had not been told about the planned work, so controllers elsewhere did not know that contacting Zurich could be difficult.

Meanwhile, an Airbus A320 was approaching Friedrichshafen Airport, on the German side of Lake Constance.

Handling its arrival required Nielsen to work at another radar position, roughly three metres from the one displaying his main traffic.

We rested and watched it rain from our window.

On our way to Zurich, we enjoyed a lovely stretch along Lake Constance.

Navigating through busy Zurich's maze of construction, rails, people, river, and hills, we finally made it to our destination.

Right near a bike shop, but they didn't carry my cleats.

And amongst it, I got to meet many, many, many important customers who wanted to have opera tickets.

Amongst them were the Counts of Bernadotte from an island in Lake Constance.

And we became good friends.

And she said, hey, listen, my husband is turning 80 and we have a small party that needs to be organized.

Hello and welcome to this ICIS podcast with me, Vicky Ellis, Senior Editor for Europe Polyethylene.

Now, this October saw thousands of plastics producers, machinery makers, distributors and more visit Friedrichshafen in Germany for the 30th edition of FACUMA, the International Trade Fair for Plastics Processing on the beautiful, misty shores of Lake Constance.

And joining them were a handful of some of ICIS's finest reporters and analysts.

So what we're doing today is we're going to speak about some of the key themes we picked up on in our many, many meetings.

It forms part of the Swiss-Lichtenstein border, then part of the Swiss-Austrian border.

From Lake Constance downstream, it forms part of the Swiss-German border.

After that, the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border.

It then flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland.

Definitely.

And for people who have never heard of the Lindau meeting, what makes it such a unique gathering in scientific world? And Lindau, I think for people who don't know, it's in Southeast Germany on Lake Constance, close to the Austria border, right? So what makes this such a unique meeting?

I think what makes Lindau really this great is the platform it gives for young scientists.

The opportunity to connect with laureates is really very, very, very important.

So Columbanus and his Irish monks set out on yet another journey, an epic trek across Europe and along the banks of the Rhine to Brigantium.

Now called Bregenz, it was here, on the shores of Lake Constance, that Columbanus founded his fourth monastery, once again after negotiations with the local king.

Statues mark his legacy today, but in the seventh century, Columbanus, his disciples, and their Christianity were rejected by the people of Brigantium, a rejection that would end in violence.

When two of his monks were brutally murdered, Columbanus felt he had no choice but to leave.

Behind me are the Alps and beyond them, Italy.

And this wall of mountains, Columbanus has to climb to get to Italy if he's to start all over again.

While Columbanus headed for Italy, one of his disciples who had followed him all the way from Ireland chose to stay on the shores of Lake Constance and build a hermitage in the wilderness.

That disciple's name was Gaul, and his hermitage became the monastic town of St. Gallen in Switzerland, which grew into another major centre of spirituality and scholarship in Europe.

Now the investigation is more efficient.

This find comes as authorities are searching nearby Lake Constance for shipwrecks as part of a project called Wrecks and Deep Sea.

This discovery has given researchers the opportunity to study the remains of this ship without having to go underwater to do it.

The ceiling seems to have been made from a flat-bottomed ship that was common in the Middle Ages, and it shows evidence of repairs, including an area where a damaged section was removed and replaced while the ship was still in use.

But which will they choose? My guest this week is a businessman, game designer and sometime podcaster.

Growing up in Baden-Württemberg in a political family, he would enter the world of game retail, opening the shop Seetoll on Lake Constance.

He's best known in the world of games for his design though, and has designed many titles with his design partner Lucas Zach, including Von Falkenstein, Bang! the Dice Game, but is probably most well known for his Spiel des Jahres winning juggernaut Dorfromantik.

My guest this week is Michael Palm.

It's near the, uh, border to Switzerland, for example.

Uh, of course a part of it is the Schwarzwald, so the Black Forest, which is important for us.

Um, and of course the Lake Constance is part of, uh, Baden-Württemberg.

That's why I went to, um, Constance to study there, the laws.