Day 12: Donauworth to Fussen:

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We ate our last breakfast in the Donauworth Hostel, then packed up and hit the road. We'd decided to make one stop on our way to Fussen, at the world famous Weiskirche. It lies between Steingaden and Wildsteig, about 30 kilometers from Fussen. Most of the trip there was on 4-lane roads or at least occasional 3-laned, so it didn't take us long to get there, even with the occasional tractor on the road. Yes, quite often you will see a farm tractor ambling along a busy highway in Germany. The Weiskirche was built in the 1740s to house a statue of the scourged Savior that had reportedly shed tears. Since then, millions of pilgrims have visited this church, supposedly a million or more a year recently. The church was very impressive both outside and inside. There are a couple of inns and restaurants nearby, and a number of souvenir shops. I bought another thimble there, and tried get another pressed penny (or in Germany a pressed 5-cent piece), but the machine took my money and gave me nothing in return.

Back on the road, we reached the outskirts of Fussen in no time at all, amazed by how small both Schwangau and Fussen actually were, compared to what we were expecting. Almost entirely older buildings, and not city-like at all, just big towns. Before we entered Fussen, we couldn't help but spot the world famous Neuschwanstein Castle, supposedly the castle that Walt Disney used to fashion his Disneyland castle after. We pulled off the road briefly to take a photo, then continued on to Fussen. After barely entering the town, we found the street the hostel was on and shortly thereafter our hostel for the next two nights, L.A. City Hostel. I know the name sounds very big and modern, but actually it is small and fairly old. Since it was only 11am or so, we discovered the hostel staff wouldn't be there for check-in until 4pm, so we parked our car next to the building in what we hoped was the proper place, gather our sightseeing gear and headed out to explore Fussen. We found the Tourist Information Center about 4 or 5 blocks from the hostel, along with a small mall that had a nice REWE supermarket for our light dinner. We picked up a pamphlet of Fussen along with a map and started looking for the main sights. Riechenstrasse was a pedestrian only street not far from the Info Center that looked like it had a number of places to eat, so we headed that way. We ended up stopping at the Stadt Cafe, and asked if they had a menu in English, and to our surprise, they did. Unfortunately, it didn't list the specials of the day, so we decided to wing it and order to items that looked... interesting. Manoli order the zweierlei Matjeshappen dish that turned out to be two types of fish with potato dumplings. One fish was okay, but even she didn't like the other. I ordered Putengeschnetzeltes, which turned out to be tasty pieces of pork with some veggies, potatoes cakes, and a nice sauce over rice. Mine was delicious.

After lunch we strolled around the sights, seeing the St. Mang church and Annakapelle, and then the Hohes Scholoss (or High Palace) which was right next door. We decided not to take the tour since we'd be visiting the two big castles and it there would be no comparison. It was pretty cool though, and we were even able to climb some stairs to a section of the wall for some great photos. We then walked down to the river, checked out the Franciscan Monastery, then headed back to the hostel to check in. The ladies showed up just before 4pm, checked us in, gave us the rundown and showed us our room. We were the first people there, so we got to choose our bunks. It was Manoli's turn for the top bunk, since I'd taken it at the last hostel. The room doesn't have restroom, as is usual with dorms, but it does have a nice little balcony with a decent view of the castle in the distance. The hostel has a small break room where there is almost always coffee and a refrigerator. We got organized in our room, relaxed for a bit, then decided to see if we could walk to the ticket center for the castles that we'd visit tomorrow. You can only purchase tickets there, the day of your tour, or online two days or more ahead of time, so we are crossing our fingers that tomorrow morning we'll be able to get tickets.

The walk out of town to the ticket office at the base of the mountain the castles were on was pleasant enough, but took a good bit longer than I'd expected, based on the map I had. We kept going, not wanting to turn back, but worried we'd never make it back to Fussen in time to buy our evening meal fixings by closing time at 8pm. Well, we pretty much ran out of time, but got lucky and spotted a bus to Fussen that was pulling up just as we got there. Tomorrow, we are NOT walking there, but will drive our car and pay the 6 Euros parking fee. We got off the bus not too far from the REWE supermarket and started shopping. We ended up getting a sandwich, some delicious meat salad I'd had before, some bread, dessert, and another Coke. We went back to the hostel, ate our dinner in the break room, and discovered that we were going to be the only ones in our dorm room, tonight at least.

Tomorrow around 7am, we'll drive to the castle's ticket center which opens at 7:30am and hope we can get early tickets for the tours of both castles. Tomorrow will be our last day in Germany, as we'll head to Innsbruck, Austria for a couple days.

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[D MJ Binkley]

Bavaria
Beautiful