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Published: December 9th 2008
This past weekend Jason had a 3 day weekend thanks to the celebration of the Immaculate Conception in Italy. We decided to drive up to Fussen Germany for a little pre-Christmas cheer. Germany is known for its huge Christmas markets and we were excited to see a little snow in the mountains and explore the castles of Fussen.
We left right after my pasta making class on Friday and drove straight through for 5 hours to Fussen. The end of the drive was actually quite scary as we drove through the curvy mountain roads of Austria in the dark and fog. I don't know what we would do without our GPS! We made it safely and arrived at our hotel, Hotel Sonne right in the center of Fussen. Fussen is a cute little German town with amazing mountain views and easy access to 2 famous castles. It was getting quite late so we had a German meal at our hotel and headed to bed to get some rest before our long day of walking up to the castles the next day
We woke up early to a pretty clear day and drove 4km to the base of the castles
and started the short but uphill walk to the first castle, Hohenschwangau. Hohenschwangau means "castle of the high swan country" and was the summer home of King Ludwig II and his family. The guided tour was great.
After we walked back down to the base we took a carriage ride up to the more famous castle, Neuschwanstein Castle. Neuschwanstein means "New Swan Stone Castle" and construction began in 1869 under the order of King Ludwig II but was never finished after his death. The Disney Cinderella's castle was modeled after this castle. We took another guided tour of the rooms of the castle that were completed. After the tour we walked up to a place called Mary's Bridge where there is a great view of the castle and waterfall.
Saturday afternoon when we returned to our hotel we went to the Fussen Christmas market but the snow turned a little rainy so we took a little nap and then went out to dinner at a recommended German restaurant. The atmosphere and food was great. They outfitted us with bibs in case we were messy.
Sunday we drove north up the "Romantic Road" to Augsburg, Germany to see
their large Christmas festival. This was a great way to get in the Christmas mood with all the lights, decorations, smell of hot cider and warm nuts. We bought a few necessary xmas gifts, ate some bratwurst and candy and headed back to Fussen in the late afternoon.
Sunday evening we ate at another German restaurant (Jason won't let us eat anything but when in Germany!). One common practice in Germany is that you may be seated next to other people at the same table if there isn't room in the restaurant. Luckily we had been told this or it might have freaked us out a little. When we walked in we were seated at a table for 4 with another couple from Germany. It's actually quite interesting but you can either make conversation or not at all. The language barrier can be a problem sometimes!
Monday brought the end to our relaxing and festive December weekend in Germany. We wanted to make sure that on the way home we could enjoy the beautiful mountain views in Austria so we got on the road at 10am and you can see the pictures of the very clear day!
Hope you enjoy the pictures! I will be heading home on Friday for the holidays in Minnesota and Jason will be coming on the 20th! Happy Holidays to everyone and hopefully we'll get to see most of you!
Love...Jason and Kristi
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Anne Haight
non-member comment
bibs...yeah!
LUV the Bibs for that German garb...nice! AND, those warm nuts...if that doesn't bring back memories of Oktoberfest 1999 (and that in itself even sounds scary...is it really almost 2009 already!)? Thanks for sharing! Sounds like Germany treated you well :)