Let me start by saying I am not a Disney person. Like I'm not a Disney person My apologies to all you Disney fans out there who I'm sure I have offended just two sentences into this post. However, since it's my blog I get to not like Disney and even write about it if I feel like it. So now that we've cleared that up, I'll continue my story.
In all fairness, I may have been a Disney person once upon a time (that's pretty clever right) as a child growing up in southern California when Disneyland was still a charming and somewhat civilized place to visit. My sister and I used to plead with my parents to visit the park every time we passed by it and saw the Matterhorn ride out the car window. We passed it frequently en route to our beach house in Laguna Beach (that should indicate how long ago that was, given we were able to afford a second home in southern California, which may now only be reserved for those in the billionaire stratosphere). In the 70's, Disneyland was not the overcrowded, congested, bursting-at-the-seems (need I go on), zoo that it has become.
So, when planning this leg of the trip, I felt a bit conflicted about our potential stop and itinerary in Fussen, Germany. The top attraction and the reason most people stay in Fussen is to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as the Sleeping Beauty Castle. According to one website, "The castle at Neuschwanstein inspired the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The Sleeping Beauty Castle is one of the most iconic structures in the park. The castle is based on the real-life Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany, and was the first castle built at a Disney park."
Wikipedia has a bit of a different take on the castle (without any mention of Disney), "Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century historic palace on a rugged hill of the foothills of the Alps in the very south of Germany, near the border with Austria. It is located in the Swabia region of Bavaria, in the municipality of Schwangau, above the incorporated village of Hohenschwangau, which is also the location of Hohenschwangau Castle. The closest larger town is Füssen. Despite the main residence of the Bavarian monarchs at the time—the Munich Residenz—being one of the most extensive palace complexes in the world, King Ludwig II of Bavaria felt the need to escape from the constraints he saw himself exposed to in Munich, and commissioned Neuschwanstein Palace on the remote northern edges of the Alps as a retreat but also in honor of composer Richard Wagner, whom he greatly admired." This description, sans the Disney reference, spoke to me more than the one above.
Disney fan or not, it's difficult to visit the town of Fussen and snub Neuschwanstein Castle as well as its sister castle, Hohenschwangau. So castle hopping we went.
Our drive from Selva di Val Gardena, Italy to Fussen, Germany was hardly smooth. We had to stop in Innsbruck. Austria to pay a parking ticket that I received in Salzburg two weeks prior (don't ask). However, as we came out of a tunnel, approaching Innsbruck I found myself caught in a speed trap. The speed limit dropped from 100km per hour to 60 km per hour without my noticing, so my goose was cooked. I paid the 50 Euros fine on a credit card machine that the Austrian polezei officer had at the ready for all of us unwitting speeders he had trapped that day. Five minutes later I was on my way. However, the irony wasn't lost on me that I received a speeding ticket en route to pay my parking ticket. That's called a bad day, in my book.
Once we arrived in Fussen our prospects improved. We were pleased with our simple, yet spacious hotel room and found the most delicious gelato shop right across the street, which was just the cheering up we needed. We got back into the swing of things in Germany, ordering weiner schnitzel (as well as some other delicious Bavarian dishes) for dinner. We had gone a week, in Italy, without our beloved wiener schnitzel and we were having withdrawals.
The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, enjoying one of the most delicious breakfasts we had in Germany, before checking out of our hotel and heading to Schwangu, nearby, to visit the two fabled castles. Despite having made reservations months in advance, we were not going to take any chances given what we had read online about the crowds. so we were one of the first to arrive at the property. We wanted to enjoy our day without being inundated by the mobs of people (and potential Disney fans, oh my!). It is purported that the castles receive up to 6000 visitors a day in the summer, which brings to mind images of my last ruinous trip to Disneyland in 2018, when we felt we might be stampeded to death by the crowds, in between waiting countless hours in line to get on each ride.
Due to stellar planning on my part, we avoided the crush of people and were able to see both castles, enjoying a fair amount of peace while doing so. The weather cooperated as well (not too hot and not too cold), which was a plus. However, unless you go online and see photos of the castles, or better yet fly to Germany to see the castles in person yourself, you won't be seeing any photos on this blog, since no photos were allowed to be taken inside the castles.
Right about now, you might be asking yourself if the castles lived up to the hype. Yes and no. They were beautiful and historically interesting, but no more so than other castles we saw in Germany, or Ireland, or Scotland for that matter. Nonetheless had we not visited them we might always have wondered if we had missed a gem. Not to mention the glares we would have received from all those Disney fans wondering how we could have dragged ourselves all that way to Germany and not seen the Disney castle. Horror!
There are a few photos in the collage above that you may be wondering about. The photo of the Volkswagon is the new and very cool VW bus! Although not available in the US yet, we saw a fair number of them on the German autobahn and were mesmerized. Garin thinks they look like Barbie cars, but what does he know? And besides, what's wrong with a Barbie car anyway?
And who knew that Woolworths still existed in Germany? I haven't seen a Woolworths store in the US since....well, I won't date myself by giving a year. I had to go in, so Catherine and I went shopping. It wasn't the Woolworths I remember (more like a Marshalls or Big Lots), but just seeing the name brought back many fond memories from my childhood.
Last is the mysterious photo of the pug in a pink stroller. We ran into this handsome pug while enjoying our gelato in Fussen. We couldn't get over how much he looked, felt, and smelled like our Fitzy. Of course, I bent down and kissed him, before bursting into tears and telling his owners our story of loss. As everyone else had been, they were kind and sympathetic.
Speaking of Fitzy...
Remembering Fitzy...
These photos are of Nurse Fitzy, as we referred to him. Whether suffering from Covid, as I was in this most unflattering photo above, or a cold or flu, Fitzy was always there to take care of us. Like chicken soup. he was a surefire remedy for whatever ailed us and better than any big pharma medication ever prescribed. How will we ever get better without you, our love?