Fussen, Germany


This was the train we started and ended on, yuck!!!! No bathrooms, no air, and smelly, too.



Today’s events were at the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles in Fussen, about 2 hours south of Munich. From what we learned the first castle was originally built in in the 12th century by a religious group but was destroyed by Napoleon. In 1830 the Castle Hohenschwangau was rebuilt and expanded by King Maximilian II, Ludwig’s father. He gave it the name Hohenschwangau, or “High Land of the Swans,” and it served as the summer family home. Swans everywhere!!



Get this, they had another castle where they lived during the rest of the year, or when they weren’t hunting, and it was even larger!!!It is quite obvious that this “royal” family, or the Wittelsbach family, had money and power; they ruled Bavaria for nearly 7oo years and still own one of the castles today. This place sits in the middle of a lush green area that the guides kept calling a march, and right next to 2 large lakes.




Luckily, we followed Rick Steves’ tour book pretty closely, the walk from the town to the castles was UP HILL and LONG! The guide suggestions managed to get us up the hill with a short bus ride and the rest wasn’t that bad. On the road up, we came upon Mary’s Bridge, a bridge that spans a beautiful waterfall and green vegetation area. Of course, Samantha continued to harass me about NOT crossing over the entire bridge. Yes, I was chicken and only ventured out a short way, so I could see the waterfall below…. It was magnificent and quite high up, too!

After the bridge, the trail lead to the largest castle, Neuschwanstein, which Ludwuig had built after he became the Bavarian ruler at the age of 18, in the year, 1869. The construction lasted for 17 years and during that time Ludwig was often seen on Mary’s Bridge watching the construction progress. While inside, he had a telescope he positioned in one of the rooms, on his floor of the castle of course, pointing straight out to the “new” castle.



Ludwig’s new castle was HUGE, plans began by a theatre set designer and then an architect before the real thing. It’s the very same castle that is said to have inspired Walt Disney when he created Disneyland’s castle. Can you see the resemblance? I’m sure, if nothing else, they both cost a lot!!!!

Interesting as it would be, Ludwig was friends with the musician Richard Wagner, who wrote one of 2 songs, I couldn’t truly understand the English speaker that was a native German speaker, Swan something, or maybe it was the opera song that influenced the wedding march that has become so popular? Either way, this guy had huge birthday gifts, wealthy friends, but was very antisocial. He entertained and sat behind massive table decorations that were all silver. If that wasn’t enough, Ludwig actually was only engaged to marry the cousin of Empress Sisi from Vienna, but he wrote a letter to call it off. Who knows…. The guy was out there… he never married. If that isn’t strange enough, his death is another mystery. After Ludwig the something, II or maybe III, moved into his newer castle, it was only about 1/3 complete, it was said that the Bavarian government arrived to tell him he was no longer mentally stable enough to rule their country; he was said to be a schizophrenic. He was to be removed from his home the next day. The way we heard the story, Ludwig was at the beautiful Lake Alpsee, down below his house, with his psychiatrist, that evening, and was found before dawn, dead. Who knows, but suspicions are obvious. Sadly, this wealthy person’s home was of so much interest after his death, that it was just 6 short weeks before the neighbors were touring through it.

I was pleased to see that even the royalty had tiny twin size beds like mine. There was only 1 single bed in both castles that resembled something like the size of a double bed. Now the beds of the servants were twin size in width, but MAJOR short. Maybe the servants were shorter than other people?

Well, the day is moving on, and we’re hoping to get to Frankfurt tonight. Not sure, everything depends on the train connection in Munich. I dare say that the afternoon was much cooler but e eventful none the less; we ran into a small glitch when trying to get Euros out of the bank on my ATM. The card was eaten by the bank, right there in Fussen. We’ve got US dollars, but less than 20 Euros, so we’ve got to change money or we’re on a “see” diet once that cash runs out and I can get to a bank Monday in Paris. We’ll see lots of food, but not eat much.

OH well, could be worse, we could have no clothes. That’s not likely, we have the 2 suitcases in lockers there in the Munich train station. They’ve gotten way to heavy to carry around town with all of the stuff we’ve been buying for family and friends at home. Ryanair is going to get a chunk on my credit card because of the excess weight.

Mom, don’t add to the charge by packing too much!!! See you soon.
Lots of hugs to everyone. Miss you all.
P.S. Samantha is sleeping, so I get to write and not be nagged, thus the length.

OK, We made it to Frankfurt, and are getting settled for bed.

We'll add another blog tomorrow.

Love to all. :-)