May 10, 2012 - Schloss Neuschwanstein

@@@@@@@ BACKGROUND I will write about our experiences in Garmisch soon, but for some general information, here are some exerts from the Lonely Planet – Germany chapter on Bavaria: Ludwig spent his formative years at the sun-yellow Schloss Hohenschwangau. His father, Maximilian II, rebuilt this palace in a neo-Gothic style from 12th-century ruins left by Schwangau knights. With all this faux medieval imagery filling his childhood, no wonder Ludwig turned out the way he did. Here Ludwig first met Wagner, and the Hohenstaufensaal room features...

May 7, 2012 - Füssen

Today is sadly my last day with my backpacking group traveling across Germany :( But I still have another week of European goodness to come! Although Füssen has more than 60 castles, palaces and ruins, today we only had time to visit some. The first castle we visited was Neuschwanstein Castle, which was finished being built in 1886 and looks like it belongs in a fairy tale. The actual castle consists of five different buildings Every year concerts have taken place here each September. The tradition started in 1969, but the first concert to...

May 6, 2012 - Füssen

Yay for our arrival in Füssen, a town only 5km from the Austrian border. It is quite possibly the smallest town in my journal around German, which may be why we are only staying here for two nights. Our first stop in the town was the Füssen Heritage Museum. It was built in the 1700s, inside what once was Benedictine Monastery of St Mang. The museum includes artworks, and objects found in the town dating back more than 1000 years. Because Füssen was once many many years ago a leading manufacturer of lutes, the museum is also house to a...

Sep 11, 2011 - castles in Fussen

Busy day. Subway to the train station, then 2 hr train to Fussen. Toured Hohenschwangau and Neuschwansrein castles. The latter was the inspiration for the Disney Cinderella castle. Looooots of walking today. Mom was in heaven, loving it. Traveling with these moms is interesting. Takes them 20 mins to decide which restaurant to eat at. Ugh boy. An exercise in patience. Oh well. Seen so much already and were only on our third day! Tomorrow to Salzburg!

Aug 4, 2011 - Neuschwanstein Castle

Another fantastic day in Bavaria, off the see the famous King Ludwig Castle. We arrived in beautiful sunshine after leaving the resort (100km away) in the pouring rain and proceeded with the many, many other tourists to the ticket office. To view the castle you can only go with a guide and the next tour in English was at 6.45pm so we had a relaxing afternoon enjoying the village of Hohenschwangau and eating traditional Bavarian food!! After the 40 minute uphill walk to the Castle you are bowled over with the shear magnitude of this majestic...

Jul 10, 2011 - Italy Austria and Germany

Venice to Innsbruck to Fussen We drove from Venice to Innsbruck. The views along the way were amazing. Innsbruck was stunning and had a great relaxed feel to it. We drove up the mountain to have a look over the village from above. We could also see where the Winter Olympics had been held and we could see the bob sled run and the ski jump. The people doing the ski jumps must be nuts – makes the Coast to Coast look like a walk in the park. Then we went to the old part of Innsbruck and had an Austrian dinner. The service was great, the food...

Jul 4, 2011 - Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

After Munich, we drove southwest toward Fussen, Germany. On the way, we stopped to see the famous Wies Church, which is known as a stunning example of Rococo decoration. The church is located in a meadow - seemingly in the middle of nowhere. But it seems to attract plenty of tourists. The interior is filled with pastels, curlicues, impressive columns, a heavenly painting on the ceiling and lots of light. It is indeed a striking sight to see and we are glad we made the stop. Our next sight was the even more famous Neuschwanstein Castle,...

Jun 2, 2011 - Bavaria

Wednesday morning, I heard Eva call out while I was in the bathroom. I thought maybe there was another cow parade and rushed out to see. What had caught her attention was the SNOW on the higher slopes of the valley across from us! This was the same area where we had lunch on the sunny terrace just the day before yesterday. I imagine the path where we had our hike was snowy too. What a change. We left Switzerland in the rain this morning and made our way to Fussen in Bavaria (Germany). The rain mostly stopped by the time we got down out of...

Jan 3, 2011 - Neuschwanstein Castle

We were up a bit earlier this morning to get a head start on the traffic for Neuschwanstein Castle. Breakfast was a smaller version of yesterday – while they obviously turn it on for the weekend we still managed to have a lovely breakfast. It was a beautiful clear day and Ron went down to the car to warm it up and get rid of any snow from the previous night. The outside temperature was reading a balmy -7° and it felt like it. We got to the castle Tourist Centre around 10.00am and managed to get tickets fairly easily. There were not many...

Jan 2, 2011 - Fussen - Schwangau

The morning reaffirmed our good fortune at having selected Hotel Kurcafe in Fussen for a stopover. The breakfast was the best we have encountered at any restaurant – a massive array of cold meats and cheese, pastries, breads, bacon and eggs (of various types), crepes and waffles, fresh fruit (with chocolate waterfall), yoghurts, cereals, cakes, custards, chocolates and sweet treats. Once again the staff were cheerful and helpful – we can’t recommend this hotel and this destination enough. After we recovered from breakfast we spent some time...

Jan 1, 2011 - 4 Countries in One Day

We had another slow start and after breakfast Ron and Zoë went for a walk into town to do the Trip Journal and check emails, whilst Barb stayed behind and finished the packing and tidying up the room. We got on the road around 11.15am and made our way to Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The weather was pretty amazing most of the way and the views of the mountains were quite spectacular. Unfortunately Ron missed a turn and we had to drive about 16kms out of our way to get back on track again but thank goodness for our TomTom (GPS). At Vaduz we stopped...

Dec 22, 2010 - Füssen - Dec 21-22

December 21, 2010 The best thing about our hostel is that it is directly opposite the main train station in Munich so we didn’t have to get up too early to catch our 11am train. We arrived in Füssen after around 2 hours but the journey seemed to last forever as the brat behind us really struggled with the volume control on his mouth and nobody seemed capable of shutting the carriage door after themselves so the train was either cold or one of us got up to close it, which was frequent. Thankfully, once at the end of the trip, most people on...