When your stomach says: “I want to live here, I want to stay here, here i can breath …”, when your mind says: “You have a great life and a beautiful home” and when your husband keeps calling out: “Wow, it’s so great here! More precisely, in the Hotel Krone + Design, where the most beautiful hospitality is combined with a noble ambience in every room, and all that at moderate prices. The Krone is located in the middle of the Markgräflerland, also known as the “Tuscany of Germany”, the charming southernmost part of Germany, including the border triangle with Switzerland and France. We are at the Krone for a wonderful long weekend. Here you’ll find divine food, the best regional wine and plenty of scenery as soon as you step out of the hotel and turn to where the vines show you the romantic way.
- Die Krone: Erhielt die erste Schanklizenz 1572
- 17 Zimmer hat’s! 12 im historischen Bau, 5 im Beton-, Glas-, Stahl-Look
- Sommerterrasse: Essen & Wein mal von außen betrachtet
After arriving, however, we don’t go anywhere but over to the modern extension of the Krone, to the summer restaurant: it’s Saturday evening, a warm June day in the Markgräfler Land and the terrace under the old chestnut trees is open. In summer, which here can easily go from April to October, apart from a few weather interruptions, the restaurant of the Krone is toujours outdoor. We settle down between high double walls with a flash of colour by Samuel Treindl. The colourful artworks separate the tables visually and quite practically in Corona times. Actually, a special event with the artist from Münster was planned – Corona let the Art Basel and thus also the event fall through.

A hotel like a cloud
Sonja Hechler is the hotel manager at the Krone, in the third generation, and one of the few hosts who recognises her guest’s wishes, even if you don’t have a clue about them yourself. For example, I don’t know that there is even unfiltered wine from the Gutedel grape – one of the oldest grape varieties in the world, by the way. I longed for a nice glass of wine that “rolls wonderfully pleasantly over the tongue”, my answer to the wine question. My knowledge of grapes is as far off as my understanding of art. But here too: I like to consume! (I’ll leave the sentence as it is. “Bohème”, the unfiltered wine – slightly cloudy, fine and fresh – was added to my modest collection of vines in several cases after our visit to the Schneider winery – 5 minutes’ walk from the Krone).
- Weiß & Schwarz: Die Sanderson-Tapete hat in jedem Zimmer einen anderen Look
- Vitra Design Stuhl: Einparken und ausspannen
- Meeting-Point: Flohmarkt & Art-Deco trifft sich in der Ablage


In the middle of art & nature
At the Krone, there is no better moment for art & nature than always! The next day, we leave our stylish room early – well, 5 minutes before the official end of breakfast – and then go on the bike art tour. I wear my favourite blouse and jeans, the latter parked overnight in our Vitra design chair, which by the way decorates every room in the old building in a colourful dialogue with differently patterned Sanderson wallpaper. You have to use art in everyday life, I learn later in the current Vitra design exhibition, “Home Stories. 100 years, 20 visionary interiors”. How nice, I’m way ahead of the game there, I’ve been cultivating the sometimes relentless everyday approach for a long time, it’s only visionary objects that are lacking in my everyday life.
- Die Fahrrad-Kunst-Tour startet direkt am Hotel
- Style-Bike: Vorne Gepäck, hinten nur edel
Hach Design! For the uninitiated like me, 24 installations, glaringly unmissable, point the way on the bike tour from art to even more art. It starts right behind the hotel – that is, three vines away. Colourful, huge sculptures by the sculptor Tobias Rehberger, which connect the Fondation Beyeler in Basel (we admired the Edward Hopper exhibition there!) with the Vitra Design Museum in Weil. You can also book the Hopper & more offer from the Krone, which includes special days at a special rate for art and design lovers: for example, the Fondation Beyeler, Vitra Campus and Kunst im Kesselhaus in Weil am Rhein.
We swing ourselves into the po-comfy saddle of the monochrome cream-coloured hotel bike – so stylish! The Bykes are provided by the Krone for free. (I immediately googled them for home, after all we are in the bike boom summer of 2020 – thanks to Corona(!) – and I don’t have one!).
- Von Architektur-Legende Zaha Hadid: Das Feuerwehrhaus
- Wie ein Puzzle oder Aufforderung zum Neudenken: Das Vitrahaus
- Vitra Schaudepot mit atemberaubender Möbelsammlung inside
What we encounter monumentally at the Vitra Campus Museum is the epicentre of good taste. An architectural ensemble with buildings by legends such as Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid. The Vitra Design Museum is part of the grounds. It houses the world’s most important collections of furniture design. You stand there and look and marvel and wish you had just one chair, armchair, couch, table, vase – no matter what, just one of these great design monuments of everyday life!
The epicentre of good taste

And that’s why you go to the adjacent shop after the exhibition and buy a three-piece stackable art tray (us!) or an art book or a children’s toy, vase or actually a chair. It makes you feel a little special too, and you’re not shrunk back to normal right at the exit – you know, the aura! I feel elated, light and free, I feel the free spirit of the avant-garde – inside me. Our take-away art treasure sways in front of me, lashed to the bike luggage seat, and I smile silently with happiness, my head filled with great art images. And maybe also a bit because I know all these design greats on my smartphone – so just to be on the safe side, so I still know later what I’ve seen!

We all have a routine everyday life, with Corona it gets even more structure, a whole pandemic corset. I wish us all such a little carefree time-out – preferably every day! A pause, like in this wonderful wine region, where you get a little closer to yourself again. It feels so good!
- Gut & edel, das Markgräflerland ist die Heimat des Gutedel vom bekannten Weingut Schneider
- Auszeit mit Sonja Hechler in den Weinreben: Ein Ewig-Moment zum Abspeichern im Glücklich-Hirn
That evening we went to the Binzer Mühle: the hotel and restaurant also belongs to the Krone and is run by Sonja’s partner Fabio. But that’s another story, with mega delicious Italian food! This June weekend was wonderfully warm – lots of sun in Markgräfler-Land! We talked about God-and-the-world and decided that we would book an autumn weekend for our “Charisma can do anyone!” seminar at the Krone in October. Take a look at Coaching for more information on dates and the programme! There will also be a special by chef Peter Prüfer at the Krone: What can Detox do? If you want, you can try it out right away during the seminar.