Pictures from this day can be found here.
Had to wake up in the middle of the night and took the last and only Japanese antacid that I brought on the trip – and it seemed to help immediately. From now on we are working without a net…
We headed to the station around 8:30 in the morning to catch a 9 o’clock train to Fussen. Right away there was some confusion about which train to take, and a station worker suggested a train which was completely different from the one suggested the day before by the ticket desk clerk. We tried to buy a saver pass, but I ended up buying the wrong one, and so we lost out on about 12 Euros. Overall, the pass we did get probably saved us about 12 Euros, so it probably ended up being a wash. But as we boarded the train we were a little worried about the expedition because of all the uncertainty.
The style of train that we took out of Munich was pretty cool, though. It was a lot like the Hogwarts Express Рa long hallway on the side with several small rooms/compartments that sat around six people tightly or four people comfortably. We shared a compartment not with Emma Watson or Daniel Radcliffe but with two Korean guys who looked like they were headed to the same destination. They slept most of the way, however, and when we reached a certain station we got off to wait for another connecting train and they stayed there sleeping. We had some time to kill at the station so we walked over to a small caf̩ and got some coffees and a Danish to go. Always with the eating.
Finally the train came, and we traveled deep into the countryside on a single train track. Sheltered on the mountainside was Neuschwanstein Castle. Even from the train from far away it was a dramatic sight – the white color in stark contrast to the dark forest surrounding it. Behind it the cloudy skies and mist really set a mysterious atmosphere. We got out of the train and headed to the buses waiting nearby, and then took a 15 minute ride to the area just under the castle.
Upon arrival we found that we weren’t the only ones who came to see the castle. In fact, the place was swamped with tourists, buses, and more tourists. We walked up the hill a short way and found huge lines of people – something like what you’d expect at Disneyland – and no clear instructions on what to do next. This was still at the very base of the hill, long before we even got to the castle. I made a judgment call and decided that we should ignore the huge lines and go straight up to the castle.
We started hiking up the hill, and made really good time. They had horses and carriages taking people up for a fee, otherwise you could walk up on your own. Most people were walking, and the horses left plenty of landmines to avoid while traveling the pathway. It was a little smelly, and now and then it sprinkled, but nothing worth pulling out the umbrella for. After a very speedy 20 minute hike uphill, we arrived at the castle.
It was very impressive, and we walked around the outside taking pictures and trying to figure out what the procedure was for going in. We around the side and found that they were calling out numbers of groups of people, and the only way in was to have a ticket with that number. And the tickets were available for sale. All the way back at the base of the mountain. Where the thousands of people were lined up. Whoops.
Since we were already up there we decided to take a short hike to a pedestrian bridge spanning a gorge a little ways off, and we got some good pictures while we were there. Finally we walked back to the castle, and kind of mutually decided to skip the tour inside. The time we would spend going down the hill, getting in line and waiting, buying a ticket, and then climbing the hill and taking the tour, it just seemed like too much. On top of that the skies looked threatening, and if we were stuck in line in a rainstorm that wouldn’t be much fun. I felt bad that we couldn’t go in, because the castle was one of the things that Kuniko really wanted to see, but she seemed satisfied with seeing just the outside. So we walked down the hill in good spirits.
As we waited for a bus back into town it started raining just a little bit, and then when the bus arrived it started to really come down. We got on the bus just in time, and I couldn’t help but think that we made the right decision – it would have sucked to be waiting in the rain.
Back in Fussen we had about an hour to kill before the train returning to Munich arrived, so we took the umbrella out and forged our way out to a hotel that we had seen featured on a Japanese television show. It turned out they were closed, so we couldn’t really explore, so we went back and found the main street of Fussen, and had some beers in a bar while we waited out of the rain. On the way back we saw an interesting fast food place that was selling bratwurst, so we split a double bratwurst sandwich, and then went back to catch a train out of there.
Again on the way back we had to deal with the construction, and the railroad pretty much just gave up on moving people through there by train, so we went over and caught a bus that moved us past the construction zone, and then we caught a completely different train that took us back to Munich station.
We were pretty tired after the adventure, and a little wet and scraggly-looking, but we decided to go to another beer restaurant, Spaten Munich, that my student had recommended for dinner. Turns out that this place was just a bit upscale, and we felt a little out of place in our adventure clothes, but the waiter didn’t blink an eye, and sat us down right in the middle of the dining room despite not having a reservation.
Food at Spaten was excellent – Kuniko had veal meatballs with an excellent cognac pepper sauce and I had some very cheesy spaetzel. Most of the other patrons were a little bit older, and I caught a few of them watching us wolf down our meals. I smiled and nodded at an older woman who was watching us carefully, and she smiled and nodded back, but continued to watch. Not sure what was going on, but the food was great, and we would happily go back – good place.
Afterwards we bought a small present for Roger in Zurich, since that was our next destination, and then dragged our tired bodies back to the hotel to head to bed.
