From Fϋssen to Prague

From Rothenburg we took a late train to Fϋssen, the town closest to the Neuschwanstein castle.  We had reserved dorm beds for the night at LA House, the cheapest (and I think only)  hostel in town.   We got into town around 11pm and soon discovered two other people from our train were searching for the same place.  Mary Anne and Kirsten are mother and daughter respectively and are from New Mexico.  Fellow Rick Steves readers, they had been at Burg Eltz on the same day as us (just earlier).  We chatted with them while we walked.

Funny story:  when we reached LA House, they said they were completely full and didn’t have room for Keith and I (despite the fact that I had made us a reservation online earlier that day).  The guy who worked at the hostel seemed to have no idea what to do and was flustered and frustrated.  We were so worried – what would be do if he turned us away?  It’s raining.  We have a reservation!  He suggested another place in town but it would have cost us 14 euros more!  That’s no good, we had agreed on the price that was on the website.  We fretted while he got Mary Anne and Kirsten squared away (their reservation had come through just fine).  When he returned he asked us to follow him…to the boiler room.  He was putting a mattress down on the floor and sweeping up.  When we saw our bed, Keith whispered, “your camera has batteries, right?”  We had been so worried that we’d be out on the street in Fussen and our humble little bedroom was just a comic relief!

The room was small, probably 10×10 feet.  The hot water heater took up one corner and pipes ran all over the walls (and dripped periodically).  The floor was cement and covered with dust (although the hostel worker did do his best to sweep a little).  The mattress he had given us was a twin.  There were two blankets but only one pillow.  It would be interesting to try to fit both of us.  But hey, we did have our own room!

The next day we took the bus up to the ticket area for Neuschwanstein castle (which is actually a fair hike away from the castle itself).  After waiting in line for a while we got our tickets with a scheduled tour time of 4:55 pm.  It wasn’t yet 2pm so we decided to walk back to town.  The trail we took was beautiful but indirect.  It took us an hour to get back to Fussen.  But we did get to see a lovely clear lake and got some great views of the mountains along the way.

In town we got food and train tickets to Prague.  We were hoping to leave that night but the cheapest train was the next morning at 9am.  We worried that, given our boiler room stay, we would have trouble finding a place to stay that is within our budget.  The obvious solution – stay up all night!  It would take 10 hours to get to Prague; plenty of time to sleep!

Then we caught a bus back up to the ticket area.  Mary Anne and Kirsten were on our bus and we assured them that everything had turned out OK for us the previous night (they were worried).  They had already been up to the castle and told us that it was great and after the tour we should look for stairs leading down to a creek.=

The castle was great.  It was amazing how much younger Neuschwanstein is than Burg Eltz.  Neuschwanstein was built between 1869 and 1886.  For comparison, the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889.  Neuschwanstein was never completed and they stopped in 1886 because “mad” King Ludwig II turned up dead.  Suicide, or maybe murder.  He wasn’t a smart politician.  He spent a ton of money building castles (I think he had planned 4 of which Neuschwanstein is the grandest) which served no real purpose.  King Ludwig II was basically the world’s richest nerd and was hardcore into the Romantic/neo-Gothic movement which romanticized the middle ages.

Neuschwanstein’s finished rooms are covered with murals that depict various legends portrayed in Wagner’s operas.  The throne room is particularly impressive (no cameras allowed on the tour unfortunately).  The murals there depict religious motifs or lore surrounding other kings (one depicted a dragon being slayed by some brave king/saint who I think actually lived – but probably didn’t actually kill a dragon).  There was a MASSIVE chandelier hanging from the high ceiling made of gilded bronze and composed of several rings that sort of looked like crowns.  The King’s bedroom had running water and one of the first private line telephones in Germany.  Off of the bedroom was a very strange room meant to look like a cave.  It did look like a cave!  Very convincing.  But why would you want a cave in your house?  Nerd.

Neuschwanstein was far more opulent than Burg Eltz.  You can tell that Neuschwanstein was never actually used for defense because the arrow slits are too wide and covered with paned windows.  The brickwork of Neuschwanstein looks modern too.  King Ludwig II never lived in his castle, but now days a few of the Neuschwanstein’s staff do.  They rent rooms for cheap from the state of Bavaria.

After our tour we found the stairway that Mary Anne and Kirsten had told us about only about 20 meters from the castle.  It lead down to a waterfall!  The water was amazingly clear and the area was a gorgeous unspoiled natural setting.  We followed a trail along the creek that the water fell into and enjoyed the scenery.  The trail led back to the ticket area which was deserted since the castle was closed by that time.  We took a more direct route back to Fussen this time which didn’t involve all the hiking up and down hills that the first trail did.

When we got to Fussen we had about 12 hours to kill until our train in the morning.  We got spaghetti and pizza for dinner at a take out restaurant.  It was GOOD!  The man working there had bragged that his grandmother was from St. Louis (and that’s why he made excellent pizza).  Fussen is a small town and we worried that nothing would be open late.  We asked him about it and he directed us to a bar called Relax open until 1am and a disco called The Big Apple open until 3:30am.

We locked our bags up at the train station and headed to Relax.  We had a few drinks and hung out until 1.  Then it was time to go find The Big Apple (which was so far from the town center that it wasn’t on our map).  We wondered if anyone at all would be at a small town disco on a Wednesday night.  We killed about a half hour walking and lo and behold there was The Big Apple and it was hoppin’!  The club was tiny but it was PACKED!

We headed in and danced our little hinies off.  The music was mostly in English and mostly songs we knew, but they did play a couple German songs and it was really cool to hear the whole crowd sign along.  I think we were the only ones there who didn’t speak German.  One cultural different stuck out dramatically here.  The club was 18+ but I’m pretty sure some kids under 18 snuck in.  It was REALLY weird to see these baby faced youngsters holding beers and cocktails like it was nothing.  We had a great time dancing and were excited to hear “I Gotta Feelin’” by the Black Eyed Peas which has come to define our trip (we hear it everywhere we go).  We were perplexed when the DJ stopped the music to read off bingo numbers.  I have no idea what that was about but everyone in the room was looking at their little bingo cards.  I always thought that bingo was for geriatrics.  Go figure.

The club closed a 3:30 and we headed back into town.  By the time we got to town we had probably walked over 8 kilometers since we woke up.  We were VERY tired but we still had 5 hours before our train!  We hoped that the train station would open at 4 so we could take bird baths in the bathroom sink.  It didn’t open at 4… or 4:30.  The first train of the day left around 5am and so did we.  We found a pastry shop that was just opening up and hung out there until 6.  It was very cold and I wanted some tea to warm me up so we found a cafe that had just opened.  We sat there until the grocery store opened and 7.  At the grocery store we got breakfast and headed back to the train station that was finally open.  We couldn’t bring ourselves to bird bathe there though because the bathrooms stunk so badly.

Our first train took us to the Munich Hauptbahnhof (main station) where we found public restrooms that actually had showers!  Although we desperately needed showers they cost SEVEN EUROS!!  Total rip-off.  We weren’t about to pay that so we washed our hair in the sinks and cleaned ourselves the best we could with we paper towels.  But that was only half a bird bath.  I’m proud to announce that I shaved both my legs and my armpits in the WC on our next train WHILE IT WAS MOVING (without cutting myself)!

When we got to Prague, Grant (a friend of mine who teaches English here) met us at the train station.  We’re staying at Grant’s apartment.  He has two roommates (Vicky and Chase) who are also English teachers from the U.S.

Today we went to Wenceslaus square.  Grant knows a ton about the city so he’s like our own private guide!  We saw the national museum (from a distance), the municipal building and the powder tower (which used to be part of the city wall).  Then we went to another square near the Charles bridge.  We watched the giant clock do it’s thing at the hour and it was far less boring than the one in Rothenburg.  The best part was a  skeleton ringing a bell of to one side.

Then we crossed the Charles bridge.  The views of the city from the bridge are INCREDIBLE!  Prague is gorgeous.  Far more beautiful than London or Paris.  The cityscape is very colorful and I was temped to buy one of the artsy photos sold but a TON of various venders  along the bridge.  I ended up buying a little painting in a nearby art shop that is a colorful and abstracted version of the cityscape.  We’re having a great time in Prague and Grant is trying to convince us that we should live here too!

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