| From: "Bron Gondwana" <brong@brong.net> Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:38:36 +1000 (EST) |
We got up for the 8am train to Fuessen, only to discover that the guide book suggests the 4:15am train - yeah, really - it does. Oh, and that would be why - millions of tourists! We didn't queue for the tours of the two castles, because we were too late to get anything remotely early in the day, and couldn't stay too late. To fill you in on the backgroud here, Fuessen is the place where Mad King Ludwig II grew up, and where he built the fairytale castle that Walt Disney based his magic castles on. We started at Hohenswangau, where Ludwig II grew up - then wandered off to check out the fairytale Neuschwanstein. The views were amazing, and the lake looked fanstastic - we were planning to deal with wet clothes for a bit in exchange for swimming in one of them, it looked so nice. We were also rather hot and sweaty from all the climbing! There were great waterfalls, and a very crowded bridge with a view down over the castles. In the end we didn't have time for swimming, when we realised that the buses cut the time to the train rather fine, so we walked (fastly!) the 3km back into Fuessen! We'd left our packs back in Munich at the hostel, so another 2 hours train back there to collect them, then a further hour and a half to Ulm. Nearly 6 hours train travel all together! I collected both packs from the hostel (heavy!) while Kate rushed off to find food in the 25 minutes we had between trains. Arrived late in Ulm - the hostel (a DJH, the youth hostelling club) was a long way from the station, and not in the lonely planet map. Things were further confused by us forgetting the German word for youth hostel, so following the signs to the street it was on instead. Unfortunately, that street splits off into two sections, a reasonable way apart - and the signs took us to the wrong one! A friendly local guided us back again. We were put in separate beds, and told lock-up was 10pm. We got a "let in late" key, and tried to go out, only to realise that nothing nearby was open! Guess I can see why they have the 10pm thing then. |
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