JULY 9- Day 9
Neuschwanstein Castle and Fussen
Today was the beginning to an incredible experience. After we woke up early in the hotel near the train station, we started to plan how to get to Fussen. This town is south of Munich where one of most famous sites in all of Europe…Neuschwanstein castle, is located. This is by far one of the best and most iconic sites in Europe. In fact, it is the inspiration for the famous Disney world castle in Orlando and California. This castle almost bankrupted the entire country of Germany in the 1600s built by King Ludwig of Bavaria II, and it is still one of the most beautiful sites in all of the world.
The first stop of the day was to get to Dunkin donuts in the morning to get our early morning coffee, and a fresh start to the day. Fortunately this was located in the train terminal where we were to embark our daily trip. We left around 7am and determined we should be in the area we need to be (Fussen) by 9. It worked perfect when we transferred trains in Beissenhofen, and went straight to the castle ticket area when we arrived in Fussan. This visitor center is where you have to buy tickets, and to our benefit, we found we had to book our time for the day, and then return at said time. Thus we went to the town of Fussen for breakfast, and explore before our tour time was available.
we stopped at… near the bus stop, and had a nice bacon and egg breakfast with OJ. We are on a budget but decided it was worth it for some real food other than coffee and donuts. This cost us…. From this point we had about an hour to kill in the historic town, thus we decided to walk around the area, and explore the graveyard, and historic districts. This was a tremendous delight as we were able to see the old patrons of the village , and even historical names buried here. We had the whole place to ourself and the hour we had to spend went by so quick that we almost missed our bus to the castle.
Nonetheless we didn’t miss the bus. We made it, and started the tour. The tour itself is a walking tour through the castle, and there are two ways to the top of the castle. tour bus to the main entrance, or a nice hike through two waterfalls on a trail designated to the area. This was a great way to stretch the legs and get us in position to be at the tour.
In order tor each the tour, you must pass a few gift shops and restuarants from the bus stop, while ascending the hill to the entrance. This is a scenic walk, but before you arrive at the primary castle, one cannot miss the other castle called the Hohenscwangau, which offers tours as well. We did not take the tour, but it looked very interesting if one has time.
Once we reached the top we started the tour, and to my dismay we were unable to take pictures inside the castle due to local rules in the town. Either way, we were able to take some beautiful pictures of the landscape outside the building, and of the waterfall and overlooks of which the castle is famous. This was an incredible tour and worth every penny that we spent. I was even more impressed by the scenic view from the patio area of the castle which offered sweeping landscape images of a beautiful blue lake, and the Austrian Alps.
It was time to head back to the town after this, but before we hopped back in the train we stopped at the lake at the bottom of the castle. This was a beautiful spot, and I only wish we had time to hangout longer than the time it took us to eat our ice cream we bought near the area. This is truly one of the best areas of the trip to this point, but the journey must continue. It was time to head back to the hotel. Before we hopped on the bus, we decided to buy some ice cream, and enjoy the castle from the bottom, and relax.
It was at this time we were on the train, that we realized the trains had food carts in the middle. This meant we could get a beer and snack on the ride home while enjoying the countryside flying by us. This was a great experience.
PROTIP- When traveling trains in Europe, you must buy a ticket or rail pass that designates you in first class or second class. They are not much different in terms of comfort, however you are not allowed in first class if you do not have a ticket. The restaurant/ food train car, is usually the divider between sections. You do not need a designated ticket to be allowed in and many trains are more comfortable in the restaurant area. I recommend trying to find seats in the restaurant if you are first on board of a journey. It is more relaxing and scenic.
Upon arriving back at the city, we headed into a local brewery which was actually rated better than the famous hofbrauhaus we had been to the day before. This was called Augustiner Brauhaus, and was more enjoyable with the crazy amount of tourist crowds, which you receive at Hofbrauhaus. Since it was near the hotel,We headed there for dinner too, and then explored a local church which was extremely creepy. The name of this church was St. Benedicts Church. From here it was time to call it a night, and since we were close we took the rest of the night to sleep and relax for another busy day tomorrow….naturally.
EXPENSES
1.79 Burger king coffee
4.80 breakfast
2.10 coffee
33.60 castle tour
7.80 fussen
9 bus to cast
5 bus to castle
7 lunch sandwich
3.60 ice cream
11 beer on train
31.20 dinner and beer augustiner
Total- 116.89= 34.89 over budget