Germany: How Britain helped turn the Allgäu green

It's always interesting to find out how destinations developed, and it turns out we Brits had a hand in shaping the Allgäu region of Bavaria.

There are two phases to the area's recent history, which locals call the 'Blaue Allgäu' (Blue Allgäu) and the 'Grune Allgäu' (Green Allgäu).

The blue colour came from flax, which they grew to make linen. The Allgäu was getting along just fine as textile country until Britain's industrial revolution, which flooded the market with cheaper cotton goods.

Instead the people of the Allgäu turned to dairy farming, allowing land once used for crops to be reclaimed by grass - which helped make it as green and pleasant as it is today.

That helped pave the way for a (mainly domestic) tourism market that really got going when railways arrived in the late 1800s (the industrial revolution wasn't all bad).

You're never far from an instance of that history influencing tourism. Anne Riedler from Oberstdorf Tourism tells me one of the peak times for visitors is in September, when farmers begin fetching their herds down from the foothills of the mountains (the Almabtrieb, Viehscheid). Each town does it on a different date, and uses it as an opportunity to throw a party.

In Oberstdorf, one of the towns we stayed in, the event will take place on September 11-12.

Elsewhere, we met cheesemaker Georg Grundl, who also runs a cheese-making school for tourists, and farmer-hotelier Klaus Hauber, who uses hay and herbs from his own land both in the hotel's spa treatments and to decorate and fragrance the rooms.

Hauber is also an example of how the 'Grune Allgäu' helped bring in the golf dollar. His guests can walk straight onto the Golfplatz Oberstaufen, several holes of which are on his land. 

He observes that superb grass comes naturally to the region - and I'm sure the climate means courses are less resource-hungry than in hotter, drier destinations (even if the golfers themselves have to deal with less reliable weather...).

I've posted a few times from Allgau - hit the link to read them all.