Contents
- Preface
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam, Helmond
- Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
- Amsterdam, Bruges
- Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
- Berlin
- Berlin, Potsdam
- Berlin, Wansee
- Berlin, Prague
- Prague
- Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
- Vienna
- Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
- Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
- Munich, Innsbruck
- Innsbruck
- Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
- Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
- Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
- Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
- Zermatt
- Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
- Barcelona
- Barcelona, Sitges
- Barcelona
- Milan, Venice
- Venice
- Venice
- Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
- Cinque Terre, La Spezia
- Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
- Florence
- Florence
- Florence, Siena
- Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
- Rome
- Rome
- Rome, Sorrento
- Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
- Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
- Sorrento, Capri, Naples
- Naples, Bari
- Patras, Athens, Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
- Santorini
- Santorini, Athens
- Athens
- Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco
Prev :: Friday, 16 September 2005 :: Next
15. Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
Photo Gallery
Today is the official castle day of my sabbatical. It's a lovely 3-km walk along the river and through the forest from Füssen up to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. When I saw the latter, I realized that I had actually put a big poster of it on my wall in high school! If I had seen such a poster today without knowing about the real place, I would have thought it was a CGI effect — that's how outlandish it is, a fantastic prototype for the Disney castle, with terrific mountains soaring up to the south, and a beautiful lake to the west. The Germans seem to find it in poor taste, or maybe just not old enough to merit historical attention (early 19th century), but we Americans love it.
It's good to get here early, as you only go in as part of a tour. The entrance tickets are two hours apart, first for Hohenschwangau, a smaller, yellow castle, and then for Neuschwanstein, which is about a half-hour walk up another hill. This is where the gorgeous, tall King Ludwig II lived out his sad life, until he was found dead in the lake with one of his doctors. Engaged to be married when young, he finally told her that he really just wanted to be friends. Yeah! His only other suspected relationship was with Wagner... Well, listening to Wagner all day would make anyone ridiculously sad... What was he thinking?!
After the tour, I hiked up to the bridge for an excellent view (for the really spectacular view on the posters, with the mountains in the background, I think you'd need a helicopter to get back behind the castle on its north side). Then I kept going up the trail, thinking that this high precipitous mountain would afford a great view down. It does, but it takes quite a while to get up to a spot where there is an overlook — maybe half an hour or more. With more time, you can head much higher into the mountains. The Alps here rise up really dramatically, quite high peaks shooting straight up out of nearly flat plains to the north. No foothills to speak of. I turned around at the overlook, but instead of walking back to Füssen along the road, I took the trail past Hohenschwangau and the lake, over the hills through the beautiful forest and eventually back to the town. The trail you want is marked #46 I think, but it isn't signed everywhere so it's good to have a map. For a quicker trip you could rent a bike.
In the evening I headed back to Munich, arriving around 21:00. Nice view from the train of the green rolling countryside and the Alps in the distance. Now, the next day is the first day of the Oktoberfest. Even two or three months in advance, a lot of places are already booked. I finally found one through Muenchen.de, the Hotel Savoy. At €49, it doesn't even seem to gouge. It's a longish walk north from the train station, but not too bad (half an hour or so). Compared with Berlin, Munich is a much more manageable city, with a nice compact core. Being here for this event was actually an amazing stroke of luck — I didn't even consider it when first planning my itinerary, and my first inkling that something was going on was that it was the most difficult place in Europe to find a room reservation! At first I wasn't particularly enthused about it (since I don't drink beer much), but I'm really glad I made it, and I'd say it's even worth planning your dates carefully just so you can do so too.
At this point, laundry was once again required. Here I finally found a place several big blocks to the west of the hotel (and walking through the chilly rain was no fun). I realized I had created the first great disaster of my trip, which was that I left one of my favorite shirts in the closet of the hotel room in Füssen. But at least it wasn't an expensive one; I'll just have to go back to DNA in Venice Beach and look for another.
At a crowded bar, there are a number of people in lederhosen! It's delightful. A short round Bavarian man gets on the stage with a microphone and starts leading the crowd in absolutely ridiculous drinking songs — almost like Oompa-Loompa music (from the original 70s movie, not the more recent Sandip Roy character)! But, it's really fun. Theoretically it sounds crazy, but when you're there it's the most fun in the world.