Let It Snow (In Fussen)

Stop #3

Füssen is the land of castles and swans and snow, turns out. I woke up my first morning to a fresh cover of powder.


And hiked uphill to see the castles of King Ludwig II. He grew up in Hohenschwangau and had Neuschwanstein built later in life. It was never finished because he mysteriously died after being declared insane (due to his expensive architectural hobbies). Nonetheless, he had good taste. Can you see it in the left-middle, frosted with snow?


Perhaps if I were a professional photographer or if the weather were more agreeable or if I had stronger legs and had hiked up 2,000 more feet, my picture would've looked like this.


Neuschwanstein was the model Walt Disney used for his fairtale castle. See the resemblance?

And now I'll insert a picture to show you why I don't include more pictures of myself in here. Everytime I ask someone to take one for me, they somehow forget that I'm not the focal point, the background is. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or annoyed. But please note that although not visible from the picture, above the top of the wall behind me, there are some cool spires.

Ok. My favorite part. Our tour guide took us to this top room last. I suspected it as the chapel, since we hadn't seen the chapel yet, and pretty much all castles have chapels from what I've seen so far. It was BEAUTIFUL. Looking through the sun-filled windows you saw across the gulch onto the snow topped mountains. You really felt nestled atop the mountain. It was unbelievably gorgeous. Inside and outside. The setting was the cherry on top.

So then the guide told us that it was a concert hall - no chapel after all. And I was just beginning to fall in love and think that someone finally got it right for once. The back of the room was a big mural of a forest with green trees and animals... :-) I guess a concert hall is ok too. He had it built in honor of Richard Wagner and all the paintings inside were a memorial to his operas.

For day 2 in Fussen, I actually headed over to Reutte (in Austria) to hike around a bit and see the ruins of Ehrenberg castle.

Yes. It was cold :-) But here's a view from the top.

Well worth it.

And on Day 3, mother nature decided she missed the beach. It was sunny at 75 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. Do you recognize this picture?

It's the same as the first picture in this entry, minus the snow. That's how warm it was :-) It was bliss. I took a little walk along the lake and appropriately saw a swan. I waited like 15 minutes for him to look all graceful and poised as he sat in the water, but he refused and continued stubbornly to bathe himself. So here he is, looking like a goose.


I forgot to mention that this land is the land of swans. Hohenschwagen (schwag meaning swan) and Neuschwanstein (schwan meaning swan). I've decided I will need to revisit the area in the spring or summertime. And I will definitely be staying at the L.A. Hostel again, though it might be a disappointment with different staff. During the 3 nights I was there, these two boys from Australia who are studying for the year in Germany were working there on their break. They were mid-twenties and were the cutest mother hens. They served us breakfast so politely and set the tables just so. They were completely not the type to fill those roles, which is why it made me smile so much. Just completely laid back and fun. But they gave the place such a feeling of home. One night there were only 6 of us alltogether at the hostel so we went out to dinner together. It was a perfect temporary home while being on vacation.