Fussen and the Bavarian Castles

We hit the ground running in the morning. The main reason people come to Fussen is to see the famous Neuschwanstein castle of the "Mad King Ludwig." I don't think he was mad, just not good with money and after he went broke building it in the 1880's, he unfortunately only got to live in it for a little while before being deposed. Then he mysteriously died a few days later. His body was found in a lake, along with the body of his physician.

We decided to take a scenic path to the two castles in the area: Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig was raised, and then onto Neuschwanstein, the picture perfect castle high atop the hill. Many say that it's the main influence for the Disney castle, but I've heard that at other castles before. The walk was amazing. Even though it rained off and on, walking through a lush Bavarian forest was a real treat. Everything was so green. There was lots of moss on the trees and in the distance, we could see the Schwan See and Alp see. These are two turquoise lakes that shine bright through the evergreens. We put in almost 12 miles of walking by day's end.

We missed our opportunity to take a castle tour. They sell out days in advance, but that's OK because it's the outside of the castle that's most impressive. We walked by the yellow Hohenschwangau castle after an hour or so and then walked up and up to Neuschwanstein. The sun came out and after walking 20 more minutes to the famous Marienbrucke, we got the money shots of the castle in the distance. Marienbrucke is a pedestrian bridge built by Ludwig over a gorge that gives perfect views of the castle in one direction and perfect views of a waterfall if you look behind you.

On the trail back to the cities, we ran into the 4 guys we sat next to at the Augustiner tent at Octoberfest in Munich. What a small world. We met in a city 2 hours away and were on one of the many trails/roads near the castles. We talked about where we're from and after I said "Madison, Wisconsin" another hiker walking by said "So am I!" He's an Econ student at U of Chicago now, but went to Madison Memorial. It's a REALLY small world. We almost always meet people from Madison when we're traveling abroad.

We told the Octoberfest guys about the great deals on lederhosen and dirndls we found at a used clothing store in town. Fuessen is a really charming town with lots of locally owned shops in the pedestrianized old town. We just stumbled into a clothing store on a rainy day and I couldn't believe that they were selling lederhosen for $50. It was a resale shop. Score! Like I said in earlier posts, these things regularly cost well over $1000 new. I tried on one I liked, and even though it weighs about 5 pounda, I couldn't resist. I'll fit it in the luggage somehow. Deanne found a nice dirndl from the same company that made her dirndle she bought in Austria when she was 16. So we had to tell these guys about it. It's something a lot of tourists buy for Octoberfest, but usually those are just like cheap costumes and not the real deal. The next day, we went back to the store buy a traditional shirt and blouse.

Most of Germany is drought-stricken but it's been all rain, all the time lately. Good for them and not so fun for us. But, we found out there's a thermal spa just right outside of town. We tacked on an extra day here because it's so nice and we need to chill a bit. And spending the day at a Bavarian spa is something I've never done before. For about $34 each, we could spend 4 hours changing between saunas and pools of various temps. Problem is, the saunas are naked only, and they're mixed sex areas. It's actually not a problem, but it's a bit of an adjustment. They just let it all hang out. Afer 15 minutes, you don't even notice. It's all ages (mostly over 25) and the population skews older. We loved the brine pool that was 24% salt. You could float on your back and soak it all in.

Our last night here, we ate at a nice Italian place and our bubbly, extremely gay Slovakian waiter was a hoot. We talked about the places we'd been in Slovakia and he was pretty surprised we knew Poprad and Stary Smokovek. And that Andy Warhol's parents were from near Kosice and not Pittsburgh.

Tomorrow, we're off for one night only to Lindau, a small German town on lake Konstanz. We know nothing about it and we're kinda winging it.

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