Fussen, Germany

What a strange night! Here is a story for the books. So I get into town later than I had planned on and it was dark. I am wandering around with my limited street map and my flashlight trying to figure out where I am. This nice couple helped point me in the right direction. I get to the hostel and it is really busy place. There are, what look like high school boys everywhere! School trip? The reception is closed so the "manager" calls the owner. There are 2 locations for the hostel in town and he is at the other location. I talk to the owner and he says he has a place for 1 night, but not 2. I said ok, whatever it would take to get the room for that night.

The room was at the other location, so he said he would come pick me up. Ok?! He comes to get me and he turns out to be really nice. He says he only has a bed in the dorm room. I said that was fine. As we are driving, I can tell he is thinking about something. Then he said he might have something else. There is a bed in the kitchen (in the kitchen I thought, wtf). He said I might like it better, more room, but he would need to be in there at 7:30 to make breakfast. Whatever, I was tired. So I slept in the kitchen on a single bed. I thik it was normally used for staff. But I did lock the door, just in case. Just another story to add to my list od adventures!

In the morning he said he might have a room for my 2nd night, but it was back at the other location, back where I started. However, they were getting ready for vacation and no staff would be there. I was just to leave the key in the door when I left. Crazy!  You would never see something like that in the states. So I get my key and left for a day of castle touring.

This was one part of my trip I was really looking forward to. I have had a poster of the Neuschwanstein castle for about 10 years (it is the one Walt Disney based his castles off of), and now I get to see it in person! I just hope it lives up to my expectations. You know when you have built something up so much in your mind, you just hope the real thing lives up to it?

And it did just that! I visited both castles, Hohenschwangau first, then Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau was "Mad" King Ludwig's childhood home and gave a lot of history and background information on him, makes sense. Then it was a 40 min hike uphill to Neuschwanstein. Incredible castle! Lavish rooms and antique furniture, lots of jewels and treasures that were gifts from other royalty.

King Ludwig, it seems, was very passionate about fashion and art, and swans. He had an entire rooms dedicated to swans. He wasn't so interested in politics, and as the leader of his country, this posed a problem. Eventually his cabinet declared him insane and unfit to rule (not a far stretch since his brother actually was mentally handicapped) so he would stop spending the country's money on building his castles.

It was a great day and a new castle takes over as favorite. Like there was a doubt in that one. I got back to the hostel and see 2 girls I roomed with in Rothenburg. We grabbed some dinner and swapped traveling stories. They were heading to Munich next as well. Crazy!!