Blogs from Fussen, Bavaria, Germany, Europe
March 18th 2012
I was still feeling pretty sad leaving everyone at school, but excited to begin travelling. The train ride from Munich to Fussen was actually a great experience in itself; riding on older regional trains. The landscape was picturesque, slowly approaching the snow covered alps, with sunshine directly above, quaint Bavarian villages with their onion domed churches and half timbered houses, and the last collections of snow melting away in the sun. Sticking my head out the window, seeing it all go by was one of those “this is so great! This is why I travel!” moments. Arriving in Fussen I was struck by how fancy and touristy the main drag was; lots of hotels, an expensive looking bakery, and tons of souvenir shops. I walked for ten minutes to the hostel and checked in. The hostel ... read more
Neuschwanstein and Linderhof Castles, with a side of Oberammergau
Published: September 4th 2011Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Fussen
August 15th 2011
It was raining when we left the hotel this morning, raining when we made the drive toward Neuschwanstein and raining when I made two wrong turns on a confusing roundabout (the right lane forced us to exit only after we realized we didn’t want the right lane… twice). When we arrived at the parking lot for Neuschwanstein, it had miraculously stopped raining and stayed that way during our entire visit. We picked up our reserved tickets (if you go, please take my advise and pre-reserve your tickets… we waited in line for 2 minutes whereas the people who just showed up were in line for probably an hour). After getting our tickets we walked over to the bus and bought roundtrip tickets (2,60 euro for the roundtrip) before having to wait about 20 minutes to catch ... read more
July 3rd 2011
This morning we took a train to the Dachau concentration camp to honor and remember both those who had lost their lives and those who had survived the atrocities of the camp. It was a heavy yet powerful experience that we will not elaborate on. Around noon, we had to hop into a cab to make our 13:30 train to a very different place-lighter and magical. We were looking forward to leaving Munich and taking a train to Fussen, a Bavarian town home to 2 beautiful castles connected with King Ludwig. Our journey there would take 3 transfers. Germany’s train stations and trains were similar to other one we had seen in Italy and France. In one particular station though, we were excited to see a conveyor built along side the stairs to the platform intended ... read more
May 15th 2011
Leaving Liechtenstein quickly, it is an ok place but I would not come back or want to live there, we headed to Austria intending only to drive through up to Fussen in Germany. What a hidden gem this part of the world is, stark mountains with deep valleys filled with little Austrian villages just like you see in the movies, again the scenery is breathtaking and again we have so little time to see much. Driving through one town just north of the Flexen Pass we saw a chairlift that crossed the road, quite a sight to see, it seems as though all of the towns through this part of the mountains have a couple of chair lifts for skiers, no wonder they are so good at it. The other thing, is that I have never ... read more
May 15th 2011
Considering Pam could not work we headed off to see both the castles in Fussen, Schloss Hohenschwangau and the other one being Neuschwanstein Castle, the one Walt Disney’s modeled his castle with tall spires and built around 1888 by the then King of Bavaria, Ludwig. While the castles contain some good history and are well worth the visit they were somewhat less inspiring other structures we have seen on our travels. We took guided tours of the castles to get inside and saw some wonderful artworks and relics along with some clever engineering in the kitchens of Ludwig’s castle. The great thing about Ludwig’s castles is it was never finished and remains in the same state today, never finished. Returning early afternoon it was time for some more relaxation and an easy day. ... read more
May 9th 2011
Day 5 Fussen and Castle Neichwenstein This was an amazing visit to the Castle that was built by King Ludwig II and was used in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and was the inspiration for the Castle on the logo for Walt Disney films. It was built around the 1880’s and took 17 years to build. The King only lived there for 172 days before he died in suspicious circumstances! We had a tour by a guide. which I think you might agree if you were with us, must have lived too long in one of the remote areas in the top of the castle. Walked over the Marionbrucke which offers a great view of the castle - not great if you hate heights Walked round the quaint town of Fussen. ... read more
January 3rd 2011
For our last day in Germany, Keith and I decided to head down to Füssen, where the beloved King Ludwig II (Mad King Ludwig) built his fairy tale castle, Schloß Neuschwanstein. Ludwig may or may not have been the nutcase everyone made him out to be, but he definitely had a vision when he started out to build Neuschwanstein. It was a pretty fancy place. I can't imagine being the kind of person that has the power, and audacity, to build such a huge castle... right next to the nice castle he grew up in. One castle on the same block wasn't enough??! We didn't make it into the actual castle to take a look inside. We're on our way to Rome via night train tonight so we have to be back in Munich in time ... read more
September 26th 2010
On Thursday 23/9 we travelled from Paris to Munich on the 8.45am flight and arrived around 11.00am. We went to pick up our pre-arranged Hertz rent a car, a Ford Focus automatic or similar but to our surprise it must have been Wal’s birthday as he was handed the keys to a brand new (1900kms) black Mercedes 220 diesel automobile which also had inbuilt GPS (see photo) for the same price. Wal managed to drive on the other side of the road, while Carol drove Wal mad about his driving. We arrived in Fussen around 2.00pm had a quick lunch and drink and booked into Hotel Christine a very comfortable place and very friendly owner. We were given a welcome Cocktail drink and to our surprise a Chocolate, biscuits and nuts platter was delivered to our ... read more
September 13th 2010
We drove to Füssen several times while we were being in Bavaria. This small nice town was our shopping centre :-) Town is nice and as we noticed there are some interesting places and worthy to visit, but we really we hadn't enought time and goodwill to drive everywhere. The most interesting for me were some triskelions. These ones were black on the yellow background. Three combined legs I saw everywhere in the Isle of Man and I was nice surprised the Füssen's coat of arms is well known for me. ... read more
July 4th 2010
A lady from Japan and the girl from Korea and I got together to go check out the castle. We catch a bus up tp where the ticket office is then we had to catch another bus up to this bridge that has the most amazing view of the castle. It was the most beautiful thing I have seen thus far. I bought a small picture that a man had painted/drawn of the castle, he is very talented. The next part was to walk down a steep hill down to the castle, I am not looking forward to the walk back. The castle is really great on the outside but the inside is a work or art literally. Every inch of the walls are covered in some sort of art. It's sad that the king only ... read more
