(September 15th) The difference between Austria and Germany couldn't have been more painfully obvious than when I entered a restaurant: in Austria, either no music or something highly classical would be playing. In Germany, everywhere blasted American music. Train upon first arriving at my hotel, Cee Lo Green when I sat down to dinner, Michael Jackson while I enjoyed a beer and pretzel for lunch, and Jimmy Hendrix as I wrote in my journal. At first I figured that it was due to this being a highly tourist-centric area (and it still may be due to that), but after talking to a few locals, I got the impression that they rarely encountered Americans in this Southern tip of Bavaria. Most of the tourists were native German speakers, with a healthy dose of Chinese and a sprinkling of British and others. Every now and again, I'd catch a whiff of an American accent, but not much more.
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| The pedestrian mall of Fussen. |
There's a lot to share about Fussen, so I'll start with the mountains and castles. The rivers, town, and food will be next. Since my time in Fussen was short, I decided to see as much I could in as short amount of time possible. So, I grabbed my running backpack, camera, and set off.
Every so often, I do something that is, admittedly, stupid. I know, at the time, that it's a bad idea, yet I'll do it anyways. In part, this is usually because I have the proper equipment (water, energy bars, jacket and gloves...) to let me feel confident in doing the aforementioned stupid activity. Once in a blue moon, though, it will backfire. Today was one of those days.
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| Hohenschwangau Castle, as seen from Alterschrofen. |
I started out my stay in Fussen by running through Alterschrofen to Hohenschwangau (a nice, relaxing 5k after Friday's 22.2 miles...). From there I headed up the hill to Neuschwanstein Castle, then down to Marienbrucke bridge.
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| The parapet of Neuschwanstein Castle, seen up close. |
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| Inside Neuschwanstein Castle. |
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| The front rooms of Neuschwanstein Castle. |
According to my hotel's concierge, there was a nice, short path from
Marienbrucke bridge around the back side of Neuschwanstein Castle. I
had wanted to go around the castle for some of the more picturesque
visages, so when I saw the signs on the other side of Marienbrucke
saying "Tegelberg, 3hr," I figured what the heck, I'm here and YOLO (you
only live once for those of you who, like me, have no clue what the
words coming out of teenagers and adolescents mean anymore). The three
hours didn't worry me so much as the time-based distances usually take
me 1/4 to 1/3 of the time to run them.
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| The view from Neuschwanstein Castle's gate. Keep this visage in mind as I eventually ended up running around the mountain that juts out of view to the right... |
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| Marienbrucke Bridge, from Neuschwanstein Castle |
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| Hohenschwangau Castle, as seen from just past Neuschwanstein Castle. |
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| Neuschwanstein Castle, from the start of the trail to Tegelberg. |
Fifty minutes later, after passing countless moments of vertigo from looking over the cliff faces that the trail climbed up along, and after snapping dozens of photos, I reached the summit of Tegelberg, about one kilometer above Neuschwanstein, and closer to 1300 meters above Fussen.
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| The reason for my madness...Neuschwanstein up front, Hohenschwangau in the background. |
Seven miles of running up a mountain, over nobby tree roots, slick rock, and vertigo inducing cliff edges, I was ready to go home. Too bad that the tram station, which I was relying on to get me down from here, was closed. At five thirty. On a Saturday during tourist season. Seriously?
I mean,
Seriously???
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| The rocky cliffs that I had the pleasure of running along. |
So, that's when this stupid idea backfired on me. I hadn't packed supplied for a round trip. I had my jacket, luckily, since the misty/windy weather was moving in, but running back the way I came up would take longer than the journey up due to the increasingly bad footing (I'm sorry, but slick
and wet rocks along cliff faces - not my idea of fun. Maybe I'm just getting old, but...). So, I did what any sane person would do: I took a completely different trail that looked like it was going down the backside of the mountain. Good news: I was right. It did go down. Bad news: I was right, it went down the backside of the mountain. I had a long evening ahead of me by the time that I finally hit flat roads again...
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| Finally down! Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau as dusk approaches. |
As I traveled back towards Fussen, the castles, as seen above, rose above the grassy plains. Hohenschwangau had been lit up vibrantly while Neuschwanstein kept itself in a dark seclusion. It was a difficult decision trying to figure out how to get back most efficiently, but in the end I decided to visit the last spot on my to-see list for this part of the countryside near Fussen: St. Coleman's Kirche. This quaint, baroque church stood off on it's own in the middle of a field outside of Schwangau. As night was fast approaching, it was clearly too late to step inside, but I was content, at that point, to just gaze at the stained glass windows and church tower.
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| St. Coleman's Kirche |
All in all, about 15 miles on the day over three hours, including photo stops... Stay tuned, there're still many more sites to see in Fussen itself!
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