Planet Wilder

[thumb:1427:l] Sonnenhof is a big, woody, old house with four spacious, traditionally decorated rooms and a cheery garden. It’s a 15-minute walk through the fields to the castles. That’s per Rick Steve. We actually don’t have a Rick Steve book or have been looking at his website. We just accidentally stumbled upon it when we were looking for a hotel in the Schwangau – Fussen area.

Here’s a tip: on weekends, when you’re traveling to a very touristy place, book your hotel in advance. Winging it can cause a lot of grieve.

[thumb:1409:r] So we left Landsberg am Lech and traveling down to Fussen or really to the two well known Ludwig’s castles. This was Saturday. We left Landsberg at about 10 a.m., so really, earlier than usual. We stopped (of course) at a few different places, Shongau, Peiting, and Rottenbuch. We some magnificent churches and some nice views along the way. Really good ride.

After seeing so many hotels, guest houses, privatezimmers, or privately owned homes with rooms to rent, along the road, especially around the tourist destinations, we thought that it wouldn’t be hard to find a place to stay around the Schwangau-Fussen area. WRONG! We stopped at many places that have the “zimmer frei” signs to find out that there are no rooms. Since we speak very little (almost none for me) German, we can’t figure out if there is totally no zimmer or there are no double zimmer. Whichever it was, there was no zimmer for us and one suggestion was to just search (thanks a lot buddy). At the last hotel we stopped at, I saw a sign that said zimmer frei (with the frei next to the icon with two beds) and so we stopped. The lady was just returning from her bike ride and with the little amount of English that she had we figured that there’s a room for us. She got her husband, who spoke good English, and said that there was no room there but she could take us to her neighbor and she’d have one available. We asked how much and she said she wasn’t sure but about € 25/pp. We thought the price was great and at that point, we didn’t care really.

[thumb:1425:l]This neighbor turned out to be quite some blocks away. After some exchange of words between the lady who showed us the privatezimmer and the home owner, Drew got to look around and picked a room for us. We had the option of renting a room with a bathroom in the room (€ 65) or without (€ 55) but he chose the one without because from our room we can get a view of the two castles and the mountains. Since it was such a great deal, the room was clean, and we didn’t mind the down the hallway bathroom and toilet we opted to stay for two nights and she gave us a € 100 deal for the two nights – with breakfast.

After settling in, per the owner’s suggestion, we drove up to the castles to see it up close in the evening. After 7 p.m. parking is free (usually € 4.50). We took some night pictures, Drew saw an awesome car, and we fed a greedy swan on the Alpsee lake which was right across from the Hohenschwangau castle’s parking spot. After a nice little stroll we went back to our zimmer and ended the night. No dinner for use since the brats and the loads of bologna salad that we had for our late lunch was quite filling.

So that’s how we came upon the Sonnenhof and it turned out to be a great, clean, and inexpensive place to stay.