Fussen: Neuschwanstein, Hueschwangau
Trip Start
Mar 19, 2008
1
19
61
Trip End
Jul 01, 2008
Fussen,
Germany
Friday, May 2, 2008
Well, no real surprises this morning; no one trying to pee
in beds-just one guy getting arrested during the night. Nothing too crazy. Well
I found out what he did, apparently, he was pretty hammered, and some how ended
up pulling the fire alarm in the bar of our hostel. Well, the fire department
doesn't take too kindly to false alarms, and neither does the bar. Well, this
guy got fined 500 Euros for the whole incident. 500! That's about $750 USD!
That was one expensive night at the bars, I tell you what
Train Ride 1
. Tell, we left veryearly in the morning, our train left to Fussen at 8:30. But I really didn't
mind waking up early once the train ride got going; the Bavarian countryside is
gorgeous. Rolling hills, bright green everything, forests, lakes, and the Alps
as a nice backdrop. We rolled into Fussen at about 11:00 and walked from the
station to the town below the Neuschwanstein and Neuschwangau castles; a good
45 minute walk. From a distance, the castles are stunning; so was the line to
get tickets. Two wursts, a beer, and 2 hours later; we had our tickets. Since
we had a good hour to kill before our tour of Neuschwangau, we decided to just
walk around the town for a little while. An amazing backdrop of the Alps, a
great crystal clear alpine lake, and holy crap-what's this?!?! 45 Ferraris!!!!
No, that is not a typo; apparently all the rich old men of Germany decided to
descend upon the castles on this very day
Train Ride 2
. Hallelujah. They ranged from 40 yearold classics to off the showroom beasts. After lots of drooling, it was time
for the tour. Neuschwangau was built by King Ludwig II's father as a summer
residence. It was built on top of the ruins of an old castle used by the
Knights of The Swan (or something like that). On one of the last rooms we were
to tour, I began to hear a dull roar outside; all of the Ferraris were starting
up and beginning to tear out of the parking lot. I made my way over to the
window closest to the parking lot, zoned out the guide, and reveled in the
sounds of fine Italian sports cars. For a solid two or three minutes I could
hear them leaving the parking lot; the sound made my hairs stand on end-for the
best possible reason of course. But back to the castle. It had a fairly good
amount of nice wall art, although nothing stunning
Train Ride 3
. The most amazing thing Isaw in there was the chest built to house all the important documents of the
castle. It was made entirely of ivory and gold, and speckled with various
jewels. Quite impressive. We only got to tour 6 or 8 rooms, and were limited to
a 30 minute, crowded guided tour; we also couldn't take pictures of the
interior unfortunately. Bah, oh well. For the next hour and half Laneise and I
hiked around the lake, waiting for the tour of Neuschwanstein to begin. The
trail around the lake was very well maintained, and it offered great views of
the surrounding mountains and castles. I noticed selective logging all around
the train, which was very surprising considering how much tourism these castles
bring to Bavaria and Tirol. Equally perplexing was the amount of random
firewood piles scattered through the forest
Train Ride 4
. These weren't just a few splitpieces of wood here and there, oh no; they were 10x5 foot piles of cut branches
and split wood. Eh, there must have been some reason why they existed. On the
20-minute hike up to Neuschwanstein, we tried some delicious fried pastries, I
have no idea what they were named, and just added this as a random detail as my
hamster wheel of a brain gets spinning (I'm typing this up on the night train
from Vienna to Cologne, and am pretty much in zombie mode. But I have to stay
awake to do homework, and am using the blog as a productive distraction). Well,
the tour of Neuschwanstein was quite good; but again very short, rushed, and
crowded. The throne room was just, simply put, stunning. I'll try to find some
pictures of it on the internet. Amazing mosaic floor, beautiful paintings
everywhere, wood carvings; the only thing missing was the throne
Train Ride 5
. It wasactually never built, Ludwig died before it could be built. The throne was to
be constructed of solid ivory, gold, and jewels however; this guy had some
serious cash. The next most amazing room was by far his bed room. It took 40
carpenters 2 years of solid work to complete this room. The quality and amount
of carvings in the room was absolutely incredible. I couldn't believe it. Well,
the tour ended as quickly as it began. We went out to a trail/view point
recommended by Steves; and it was well worth it. Good views of the castle and
the valley. However, there was another view point a good 20 minute hike up the
trail labeled as "Risk Death"; Laneise stayed, I most definitely went. To get
to the view point I had to scramble up a steep slope, cross downed trees, but
god damn it was worth it. I could clearly see both castles and the entire valley
Train Ride 6
.Unfortunately, my battery monger of a camera shut down after only about 10-15
pictures from the top; less than a second before I was supposed to take an
awesome timed shot of myself sitting on the cliff edge...Bah. Well, by the time I
was done hiking around at the top of the mountain, it was getting dark, so we
decided to head back into town. Due to a wrong turn down the mountain, we ended
up having to cut through a farmers field, which was actually pretty awesome.
Seriously, how often do tourists end up hiking across a farmers field in
Bavaria to reach the road back to town? I looked at my ticket, departure time
23:45; we definitely had time for dinner, it was only 20:00. We ate at a
delicious Bavarian restaurant owned by some people from Croatia. Jeeze that food
was good, and cheap too! Of course I tried another amazing Bavarian beer
Train Ride 7
. Afterhanging out in a hotel lobby for an hour or so waiting for our train to come
(because NOTHING was open in this town) we left for the train station, and got
there about 15 minutes early. Well, our train wasn't there yet; which was
actually kind of surprising. So I check my itenary this time, not my ticket;
WHAT. THE. HELL. The train left Fussen at 21:05 to Vienna. It left Munich, the
freakin second transfer point at 23:45. WHY IN GODS NAME WOULD THEY PRINT THE
TRANSFER TIME AS THE MAIN DEPARTURE TIME!!!!!!!!!! Well, we missed the last train out of Fussen by a whopping 10 minutes; thanks world. So we go, hop into a taxi, and ask him to
take us to what was supposed to be a 5 minute drive; this douche bag took full
advantage of us. First he took us to the wrong hotel, then he took us to three
more hotels that I'm SURE he knew were full; cabbies are not stupid people,
they know their town. And every time I would get out of the car to check
vacancy, he would turn around, hiking up the fare. This guy was a total prick.
Well finally he dropped us back off at the train station, and we had to settle
for an expense ass hotel. If Laneise had not been with me, I would have slept
outside, without a doubt. I had an emergency blanket, warm clothes, and only 6
hours to wait for the next train. God damnit.
