Trossingen is where the hills are alive with the sound of music, literally, and this is to be expected in a town where they make harmonicas and accordions for the heck of it. There’s also the shopping and dining in case you’re wondering.
This “music town” as it is known has a very lilting history which is to be seen in its University of Music, the Bundesakademie für Musikalische Jugenbildung (yeah, we Germans are addicted to those long names) and the Hohner Konservatorium. Clearly, music here is not a passing fancy but something very, very seriously undertaken.
Trossingen’s obsession with melody dates back to 1830 when Christian Messner couldn’t keep his hands off his neighbor’s, ahem, harmonica. He soon began making them on his own and before you could say do, re, me, the whole family got involved.
You can find out all about that at the Trossingen German Harmonica Museum. For more of that you should take the Hohner Factory tour, actually.
Trossingen is not just for music lovers; there’s plenty here for the tone-deaf as well. Check out the Trossinger Eisenbahn or the historic railway. The Museum Auberlehaus houses honest-to-goodness replicas of real dinosaurs that were actually dug up right there in Trossingen.
Now speaking for myself, I’m sure glad these critters are extinct. I mean, what if they still roamed the earth with that huge mouth full of teeth and an eternally hungry look on their faces?
Trossingen’s attractions don’t end there if you like sport and good food. The Naturbad Troas is nature good really, for it’s a swimming pool with no chlorine but the best water ever.
And before you leave make sure you try the Trossinger Morgensupp; you’ll still be pining for it a month after you’ve had it! ;-)
