Planet Wilder

[thumb:1417:l] Had a lovely breakfast at our zimmer today. It was the usual bread, cheese, meat, coffee, and such but we had some nice company, Dennis and his wife from Pennsylvania and a German gentleman who was there to hang-glide but just was not in the mood on this fine day. He works for Mercedes and drives a Grand Cherokee. Anyway, we had a nice conversation and breakfast, and after that we were off to the castles: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.

Since our zimmer was very close, about 1-2 km, to the castles, it didn’t take us long to get there. It was about 10 a.m. by the time we got to the ticket booth and the line wasn’t too bad, it was at the end of the ticket office, inside the building and probably took 10 minutes to get through. I met up with Dennis again in the line and with the little chit-chats, the line seemed to have gone quicker. Ticket price: €15/pp for the Royal Ticket… aka two castles… and free for Emma (or anybody under 18). At the ticket office, there are LCD screens that tells you what time your tour will start and a map that tells you how far each castles are if you are to hike up to it. The tours (required) are about 35 minutes, so you really have plenty of time after you get your ticket to walk up to Hohenschwangau (it took us less than 10 minutes to walk up there from the ticket office), take some scenic pictures around the castle and of the outside, go to the bathroom, and sit down for a few minutes before your tour starts.

We started our tour in Hohenschwangau at 11:15 a.m. and were out a little before 12. Our experience: the castle was really nice but it would have been better with a smaller group. Some of the rooms were not very big and we had to cramp in there. We have no pictures of the inside to show you, not allowed, but we were able to take outside pictures from the castle. Overall, we were amazed at this little castle.

After the above tour, we headed down to the bus stop to buy our tickets to go up to the next castle. To go up (or down) you can take a horse carriage ride or for Neuschwanstein you can also take the bus (€ 5.20 for both of us round trip). Walking would have taken us a good 30-40 minutes and since we’ve been walking A LOT, the tram’s the best choice (I felt bad taking the carriage ride although the horses are big and seemed well taken care of). Between buying the ticket and getting up there, I think it took about 10-15 minutes. It was about 12:30 p.m. by the time we got to the top and from there another 15 minutes walk to the castle. Before heading for the castle, we went to the bridge first. It’s called Maria’s Bridge and from here you have a very good view of Neuschwanstein. Of course we took pictures. So that little side trip took up about 15 minutes and by the time we got to the castle it was 1 p.m. Took more pictures and it was time to go in.

Neuschwanstein was more decorated than Hohenschwangau. Gorgeous and large although unfinished. We didn’t see the unfinished area but of the finished rooms that we saw, Ludwig spent a lot of money into this castle. The tour guide said that it took four years to complete the building of the castle and 17 years for the interior details. An example of labor on this castle was Ludwig’s bedroom wood trim and furniture. It took 14 carve men four years to complete the woodwork in the room, bed, and reading chair. You just have to see it! The tour was better I thought. Still a large group but since the rooms were larger, it wasn’t as crowded. For € 15/pp I think it was well worth it. They castle is probably very expensive to maintain and there were quite a bit of staff working there.

After the tour, we went to Fussen (it’s about 3 p.m. – bring snacks for the little ones!) for another late lunch. Drew got too hungry to look around for food so we got some donners kebabs. BIG snacks but it was good for the time being. Then we found an Internet Café! Ok, this thing is hard to come by along the Romantische Strasse. The café that we found was in the Luitpoldpark (there’s a little roundabout there and I think hotel Sonne is at the end of that road) area and for 30 minutes, it was € 2. Since I’m teaching an online course, this was important for me, so the 30 minutes was worth every penny of it. After the Internet we walked around the Altstadt, got some ice cream, and headed back to the car. Parking is expensive in Fussen. Our two hour stop costed € 4.10! In other towns it’s been around € .50 – .70/hr. Maybe try to find parking off the road in Fussen.

Back in our zimmer we played and another couple with a 2-year-old arrived while we were in the yard. They were Americans too, Air Force, and they are there with some friends, who already checked-in and out biking somewhere. They were very nice people, Nick and Heather and Chad and Alison. The little girl was Stella and her dolly Abby. We talked with them a bit and they invited us to have dinner together. It was quite nice. It’s been awhile since we saw other fellow Americans, our age even and of course Drew has the Air Force thing in common. We didn’t go far for dinner. The restaurant at the end of our road was actually closed, so we went another block and there was a German restaurant. If you go another block, you’d hit a Chinese restaurant but no Chinese that evening. My dinner was really good actually. It was meatloaf and some pasta. The meatloaf was different than the ones here, it had a white sauce on it and then those pasta that you eat with it. Emma really liked the pasta. After dinner we had warm drinks and dessert and back to our zimmers. I stayed in bed after dinner… put Emma to sleep but Drew and the rest talked.

The next morning it was breakfast as usual but since Drew’s stomach was a bit upset, not sure if it was the beer or the grapes, but he skipped coffee that morning. We chit-chatted at breakfast for a little while and got ready to leave soon after. I paid and was stuff our little car with crap. In the middle of all that, the host came up with coffee and the cup and was upset that Drew didn’t drink any. Nick had an empty thermos and he asked her to pour the coffee in there. She calmed down after that but goodness she was upset that we didn’t finish the coffee.