We've started to look for a house a couple of months ago. We have never even thought of such a step, but recently we both want a garden around our home and studios for our hobbies. I thought it would go fast and we would choose quickly, but it seems far more complicated and even though we don't have that many conditions most of the houses on the market can't fulfil those. However, I'm not losing the hope and keep visiting the villages in our canton to see where I can imagine ourselves living. I go on my own as the only condition that my husband has is that we don't change the canton. It's our home here and we both feel comfortable, so there is no reason to change that.
Today, I will take you to a charming village called Hallau. It's likely the biggest village that I have checked out so far. It's less than 15 minutes from where we live now which is ideal. Hallau is situated in Klettgau, surrounded by vineyards. We have a friend growing grapes here, and this year we agreed to help her with the harvest, so I can't wait for this new experience. It's going to be great! I don't know which vineyard is hers, but I'm sure that I will struggle to do any work with such views 😊
I will take you around the village before showing it to you...
During the harvest, there are many trails here that will lead you to provisional stalls where you can try the regional wine. We did the wine tasting trail some years ago and it was great! I really liked that the wine was served in the right glasses even though there was only a small stall and large fields around us. It was a lovely experience.
Above the village is a mountain church dedicated to Saint Mauritius. It's quite a hike, but let's do it!
The church dates back to the 15th century and it's closed every time I visit it. I can imagine that it's open only for the Sunday service or any special celebrations. From here you can see the entire region of Klettgau including Hallau.
You can't really walk through the fields, but there are signs that you can follow. Some trails are shorter, others might take an entire day to complete.
It was really cold due to the strong wind, but I didn't mind as the clouds were changing constantly and I enjoyed a beautiful natural spectacle.
Until I saw the rain coming in my way...
Even though I was sure I wouldn't get back to the village on time I enjoyed looking at it. It was amazing!
Maybe it will turn in another direction? Who knows...
Here we can see Hallau in the valley.
At this point I thought that I should really returned back to the village and find a place where I would wait until the rains stopped. The chances were small as although there are a few restaurants in the village they are usually closed in the afternoon.
By the time I got down to Hallau, the clouds disappeared! Let's show you around...
Even though the first mention of the village was documented more than 1000 years ago it is still one of the youngest villages in the region. The tradition of making the wine here dates back to the 13th century. This region is ideal for the wine production and Klettgau has one of the biggest vineyards community in German-speaking Switzerland.
The village keeps trying to change its status to a town, but Schaffhausen has managed to prevent it. The truth is that Hallau is growing and at some the status change will be inevitable. Although it's a village it does have an impressive Town Hall. The building hosts the village administration as well as a restaurant (which was of course closed when I visited it)
As I mentioned previously most of the fountains in Switzerland have water that you can drink. I was surprised to see that it's not the case in a place connected so much to the nature. But, there was an ugly umbrella, so I found a place to hide in case it would start raining.
Behind the fountain is a house called Zum Metzgerrain. At first, it looks like a standard house from a few hundreds year ago, but it became know because it is built in a place of a house which burnt down due to the carelessness of a French soldier Nevertheless, the new building of the Haus zum Metzgerrain received a French mansard roof.
This used to be home of the owner of the world-knows company, and Hallau is still very proud it. They made instruments for eye surgeries which they distributed all over the world. It might be known because of this, but I liked the relief which shows the harvest much more than the story.
Hallau is not a typical village, but it is built more compactly just like a small town. It does even have a wall around its core part. The wall has a practical use too because the village is built in a hilly place, so the wall helps to keep everything together.
Below the wall is another fountain which is only a few meters away from the one that we saw previously. I was too lazy to walk down and check if it's drinking water or not 😊
From here we have a view of the mountain church...
Many old farmhouses were rebuilt and are used as apartments now...
I guess it's too far away to walk up the hill each Sunday to the church, so they have another one in the village.
It's so quiet and pretty!
There were a few glass jars placed in front of these houses, each cost 0.5 CHF, so I got three of them! There was a small box for the money and I gave them a small tip too 😊 Those jars have the perfect size for kimchi that I'm planning to make.
I have a feeling that this was a private property and I trespassed. I did see a sign, but thought it was for cars, but when I got there it didn't really looked public, so I turned around before somebody saw me.
There are so many places selling wine...
This must be such a different life than what I'm living right now...
Some of the buildings are big and you can see that they belonged to wealthy families...
At first, this house doesn't look special, but look at that charming wooden 'sort of balcony' with those cute little flowers...
I didn't find any place that was open (as expected), so when I was done with walking around I jumped right back in the car and drove back home.
See you next time!