We said arrivederci to Italy, then a quick hello to Austria , before arriving in Germany. Our home for the past 6 nights has been in Fussen in Bavaria.

Our apartment has been wonderful , a few streets away from the cobblestoned main street. The town , although touristy , is picture postcard pretty!

On top of the hill in the Old Town is the aptly named “Hohes Schloss” or High Castle , and was the summer castle of the Prince-Bishops of Augsburg.

 

The inner courtyard was rather spectacular.

The “Red Church” as it is known , was not only very pretty on the outside , but the frescoes on the inside and in particular on the ceiling were amazing!

 

The streets of Fussen were lovely to wander around (especially at night when the day trippers had gone). We had a great dinner the first night and enjoyed some typical Bavarian food, Sausages , potatoes and sauerkraut , and spätzle which is cheese noodles with fried on ions on the top. Both were delicious and of course the beer flowed , and we had to have an apple strudel!

 

We arrived on Friday and the annual Historical Festival of the Renaissance was happening on the weekend. There were people everywhere dressed in their period costume, dancing, flag waving, and doing all sorts of other things.

There was a rathe large parade as well which was a bit of fun to watch!

We forgot our “note to self” and decided to drive along the German Alpine Road on Sunday! It was around 37 degrees so EVERYONE had decided to go to the Alpine Lakes and swim! Traffic everywhere!

We stopped first at the small town of Oberammergau and the frescoed facades of nearly all the buildings were beautiful. See if you can find Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel?????

 

The aim of our drive was to “do lunch” at one of the oldest breweries in Germany at Tergensee and it was worth all the heartache of the traffic chaos!

 

Spotto Rhonda in the crowd!!!! The beer , pork schnitzel and potato salad was delicious!

We also stopped at Linderhof to check out “mad” Ludwig 11 Palace and it’s gardens. We “viewed” but not “visited” the palace ( we didn’t go inside) It was the only Castle that Ludwig actually completed and lived in!

 

The next day we “visited” another of his Palaces, the Hohenschwangau Castle , the childhood home of Ludwig 11. We did a tour of the inside ….sorry no photos allowed!

 

A brief history of our “mate” Ludwig. He ascended to the throne of Bavaria at the age of 18 after his father died. He was known to be extremely eccentric, not particularly interested in governing , just wanted to build castles!!! He was declared insane and died in a “mysterious drowning” at the age of 40.

 

His legacy is the magnificent castles throughout Bavaria.

Of course the most renown is Neuschwanstein (Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle)which we also visited. Unfortunately the palace was still not finished when Ludwig died! Again no photos inside …sorry!

It was particularly ornate , including an imitation grotto , and a ‘Singers Room” where no one sang , instead Ludwig would light his 600 candle chandeliers and sit ?????????

This castle has been on Rhonda’s bucket list for a long time…..tick…….however it was waaaaaaaaaay too touristy for Greg!

 

Before leaving Fussen we took short drive to  Hopfen-see for lunch which was curry wurst and beer! Yum!

 

 

 

It has been a great stay , and we are thankful that the weather is now cooler , a pleasant 25 degrees!

So now it’s off to Switzerland to spend a few days with our Swiss family. We are looking forward to catching up with them.

So it’s that time again!

One last bretzel , and time to pack…..then a beer!!!

Prost

Greg and Rhonda