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Middle of the trip - Munich and Fussen
Sep. 28th, 2015 01:50 pm Sept 23 - Rough morning for almost everyone. We got out of the hotel and made our way to the train station. We missed the commuter train to Fussen by 10 min, so we had to wait around for almost an hour for the next one. Ugh. It was rainy and a little miserable.
The is also the only time in this entry that I'll put the umlaut over the u in Füssen. It's a complicated key entry, so I'm going to give up on it. Still, that's how it's actually spelled, so for reference and respect, here you go.
The train ride to Fussen took about 2 hours. The train was full of teenagers who seemed to be on a school trip. We wanted to strangle the lot of them by the time we made it there. Stupid kids.
Once we got to Fussen, we had to figure out how to get to our hotel. It was a VERY long walk, including along a narrow road through a break in a cliff. Weird, scary, rainy, and pretty much miserable. Then we had to wait for our hotel rooms to be ready so that we could ditch our stuff.
Then we went to find lunch and waited and waited. Then was the bus ride from Fussen up to the area around Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We had to walk up a hill from the bus stop to where we could buy tickets for tours of the castles. We were there late enough in the day (2 pm) that the only tour we could get was at 5:20. We decided that Downwood's foot and Sis's leg problems meant that we should really only go to one of the castles.
Getting to the castle from the ticket booth is an issue. You can either take a bus or a carriage most of the way, but there's still quite a bit of walking to do before you get to the castles. We chose the bus and it was TERRIFYING. Holy crap. I thought we were going to die a couple of times.
The walk to and around the castle was beautiful, but then we had to wait for almost 2 hours before we could go in. It was windy, cold, and still miserable. We were questioning our judgement in wanting to do this thing.
We ended up waiting and going on our tour and it was lovely. The castle is intense, luxurious, and still unfinished. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was cool and worth doing.
Then we went to leave. Our plan had been to take the carriage down the hill. But, since we were there late, the horses went home to bed. So we had to walk. Down a mountain. In the cold. On a steep switchbacked trail. This did NO ONE'S feet/legs any good.
That evening, we opted for dinner at the hotel. Very exhausted. Much trees. So walking.
Sept 24 - Travel day. We got up, had breakfast at the hotel, then took the train back to Munich. On the train, we saw how real Germans go to Oktoberfest. They get up early, dress up in their drindls and lederhosen and take the train in from the surrounding areas. The guys each have a six pack of beer. The girls each have at least one bottle of wine or Boones. They drink during the hour or two ride into town, then hop a Metro over to the Oktoberfest grounds. We're amateurs. They're professionals.
Sis and BiL went to the airport and flew to Berlin. Downwood and I took the high speed express train from Munich to Berlin. We got to see pretty much all the countryside of western Germany from south to north. It was cool and all, but felt like a wasted day.
Note to future travelers: don't do what we did. Instead, keep your hotel in Munich and book a day trip to Fussen and the castles through Viator or some other website. They'll take care of getting you there, getting the tickets, and getting you to and through both castles. Way more worth it. It was cool to stay there, but it would have been better all around to have done it through a tour. Live and learn.
The is also the only time in this entry that I'll put the umlaut over the u in Füssen. It's a complicated key entry, so I'm going to give up on it. Still, that's how it's actually spelled, so for reference and respect, here you go.
The train ride to Fussen took about 2 hours. The train was full of teenagers who seemed to be on a school trip. We wanted to strangle the lot of them by the time we made it there. Stupid kids.
Once we got to Fussen, we had to figure out how to get to our hotel. It was a VERY long walk, including along a narrow road through a break in a cliff. Weird, scary, rainy, and pretty much miserable. Then we had to wait for our hotel rooms to be ready so that we could ditch our stuff.
Then we went to find lunch and waited and waited. Then was the bus ride from Fussen up to the area around Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We had to walk up a hill from the bus stop to where we could buy tickets for tours of the castles. We were there late enough in the day (2 pm) that the only tour we could get was at 5:20. We decided that Downwood's foot and Sis's leg problems meant that we should really only go to one of the castles.
Getting to the castle from the ticket booth is an issue. You can either take a bus or a carriage most of the way, but there's still quite a bit of walking to do before you get to the castles. We chose the bus and it was TERRIFYING. Holy crap. I thought we were going to die a couple of times.
The walk to and around the castle was beautiful, but then we had to wait for almost 2 hours before we could go in. It was windy, cold, and still miserable. We were questioning our judgement in wanting to do this thing.
We ended up waiting and going on our tour and it was lovely. The castle is intense, luxurious, and still unfinished. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was cool and worth doing.
Then we went to leave. Our plan had been to take the carriage down the hill. But, since we were there late, the horses went home to bed. So we had to walk. Down a mountain. In the cold. On a steep switchbacked trail. This did NO ONE'S feet/legs any good.
That evening, we opted for dinner at the hotel. Very exhausted. Much trees. So walking.
Sept 24 - Travel day. We got up, had breakfast at the hotel, then took the train back to Munich. On the train, we saw how real Germans go to Oktoberfest. They get up early, dress up in their drindls and lederhosen and take the train in from the surrounding areas. The guys each have a six pack of beer. The girls each have at least one bottle of wine or Boones. They drink during the hour or two ride into town, then hop a Metro over to the Oktoberfest grounds. We're amateurs. They're professionals.
Sis and BiL went to the airport and flew to Berlin. Downwood and I took the high speed express train from Munich to Berlin. We got to see pretty much all the countryside of western Germany from south to north. It was cool and all, but felt like a wasted day.
Note to future travelers: don't do what we did. Instead, keep your hotel in Munich and book a day trip to Fussen and the castles through Viator or some other website. They'll take care of getting you there, getting the tickets, and getting you to and through both castles. Way more worth it. It was cool to stay there, but it would have been better all around to have done it through a tour. Live and learn.
