As it often happens before a trip I did not want to leave home. It was a little over one month since I returned from my last trip to Bulgaria and I was flying to Europe again, this time to Munich. The night before the departure I checked if everything was packed. The backpack felt too heavy, new sneakers too tight. I did not have time to break them in and wondered if they would give me blisters. Before going to bed I put a second pair of shoes into the backpack which made it heavier. How would my sore back cope with its weight on the overland journey across Europe? Only 10 days ago a molar suddenly flared up. After 3 dental appointments and a course of antibiotics to stop the abscess the nerve was gone and the tooth was pronounced safe to travel with it. Still feeling the pain from the treatment, I was not too sure about that.
I checked in online for my flights Denver – Washington, D.C. – Munich. All seats in economy on the second leg were taken. I did not want to pay extra for United Economy Plus and printed a boarding pass with no assigned seat.
Day 1, Munich
We got up at 4.45 am and my husband drove me to the stop from where I took the bus to the airport. Why was I doing this? The answer came to me on the plane. Because I was going to see new wonderful places and have unforgettable experiences. My back would adjust to the weight and the backpack would feel like a part of my body. The sneakers would stretch in all necessary spots and become like socks on my feet. My mind and body would settle down into the rhythm of living on the road and I’d enjoy it.
In Washington a United agent gave me a seat in Economy Plus at no change which made the transatlantic flight more bearable. Ice cream was a nice and unexpected treat after dinner. I was in the middle of savoring it when a sharp pain shot through the damn tooth that was supposed to be dead. I promptly responded to it with ibuprofen.
The flight was scheduled to arrive at 8.20 am. We landed at 7 am, more than one hour earlier. I got to the central train station where I shoved the annoying backpack into a locker for 4 euros. It was much easier to move around without it. The tourist information office at the train station supplied me with a free city map and pointed into the direction of Marienplatz, the main square of Munich. The pedestrian zone between Karlsplatz and Marienplatz squares features beautiful old buildings, street performers, shops and restaurants, and busloads of tourists. The walk around the area was quite enjoyable. I got to the top of St. Peter’s tower to view the city from above.
At 11 am I was still up there and the famous Glockenspiel started chiming. Munich’s Glockenspiel is one of the fanciest and most complicated tower clocks in the world. The show lasted over 10 minutes; it was fun to watch the life-size figures dancing.
The next tourist attraction on my list was the Residenz, the former home of the royal Bavarian family since the 14th century and now a museum. Its grand 100+ rooms are filled with antique furniture, paintings, sculptures, gold and silver services, and other treasures. It took me 2 hours to see the museum and I did not always stop to listen to the audio guide.
I ate at MacDonald’s to save time and returned to the train station, bought a ticket to Füssen and got my backpack from the locker. The travel time from Munich is about two hours. Füssen is not that far, however the railway becomes single-track and our train stopped and waited at each station for an oncoming train to pass.
It was 6.30 pm when I got to Füssen. It is a small and compact city. I walked to the hotel Villa Toscana which is in fact a villa surrounded by a shady garden. My single room was on the top floor. It had a slanted ceiling and a cozy look. I took a bath to relax my muscles and to wash off the dust, spoke with my husband, got into bed and told myself to wake up at 7 am. The bed was so comfortable that I fell asleep in no time. The sound of raindrops on the roof interrupted my sleep in the middle of the night. The gentle patter of rain was comforting, it felt good to be protected from the elements by thick walls and I drifted into sleep again.
Day 2, Füssen
I opened my eyes with a start. My phone showed 6.58 am, time to get up.
Füssen is the home base for visiting two castles that were built by the royal Bavarian family. After reading travel reports about people standing for hours in line to buy tickets to the castles I reserved mine online. Reservations are available for one or both castles and/or the museum. I opted to see the castles only. My first tour began at 10 am and the tickets had to be picked up from the ticket office no later than 8.50 am, i.e. 70 minutes before the tour. The second tour start time was 11.55 am. The duration of either tour is 40-50 minutes; both tours are with a guide. Taking photos during them is prohibited.
After an excellent breakfast at the hotel I walked to the bus station. Buses 73 and 78 go to the castles; the ride takes about 10 minutes. The ticket office was empty. I don’t know if everyone reserved their tickets online or it was not a popular date and time. I got my tickets and walked up to Hohenschwangau castle. There was nothing to do around the castle apart from viewing it from the outside. The morning was cold and soggy after the night rain, the benches too wet to sit on them and everyone milled around waiting for their tour number to be displayed over the entrance.
At exactly 10 am I got inside with a small group of other tourists and the tour began. Hohenschwangau castle belonged to the royal Bavarian family for generations. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times, the last time by king Maximilian before his wedding to Princess Marie of Prussia. All walls are decorated with murals painted directly on the stucco. Many objects displayed in the rooms are gifts to the royal family; all of them are exquisitely beautiful.
Each room is equipped with a heater that servants could feed from a passage in the walls from a different area and room’s occupants were not disturbed. Maximilian and Marie kept separate bedrooms that were connected so they could easily visit each other. The ceiling in Maximilian’s bedroom is painted deep blue and studded with small lights that imitate stars. A bigger light is for the Moon. Its shape changes according to the Moon phases. That way Maximilan could imagine himself sleeping under the open sky.
Maximilian and Marie had two sons: Ludwig and Otto. At 24 Otto was diagnosed with a mental illness and had to be locked away. After Maximilian’s death Ludwig became king of Bavaria. He was only 18 at that time. Tall and handsome, Ludwig attracted a lot of attention, but he was not a social person and tended to withdraw from public life. He got engaged to Duchess Sophie. The king was expected to produce an heir. Their wedding was postponed several times and eventually cancelled. Ludwig never married and had no children. Ludwig moved into his father’s bedroom and slept on his bed that was too short for him. Rather than ordering a new bed Ludwig started to build a new castle close to Hohenschwangau that would be his private retreat. After Ludwig’s mysterious death the crown went to his mentally ill brother Otto who was incapable of ruling and his functions were carried out by a prince regent. Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria was the last person to occupy the castle. After his death the castle was open to public, although it remains property of the descendants of the royal family.
It is easy to walk from one castle to another and there is plenty of time to do that.
The second castle Neuschwanstein is more fascinating. Ludwig chose scenes from Wagner’s operas for wall murals. He also was crazy about swans. Ludwig was sometimes called the ‘Swan’ King or the ‘Mad’ King. No wonder that the castle name means New Swan Stone. Swans are present in every room. Door handles are shaped like swans; their images are on drapes or upholstery. The faucet of the sink in Ludwig’s bedroom is a large swan and water comes out of its beak. Ludwig had a flush toilet too. Running water in a building at that time was a rarity, but Ludwig spared no expense on making his residence comfortable.
Ludwig wanted Neuschwanstein to be very private. It was not meant to be shown to anyone with one exception – his friend Richard Wagner. The composer had his own bedroom in the castle with the best view. He stayed at the castle and wrote his music. Ludwig did not spend much time there. He was king and had responsibilities. It took 17 years to build his dream castle. During that time Ludwig only lived there 170 days mostly to supervise the castle construction. The second floor with servants’ quarters is not accessible for public because it was never finished. Ludwig had other projects that he did not complete, for example, the Knight Bath where he wanted to recreate the ritual of Knights of Holy Grail. Only the shell of this room was built.
Ludwig’s eccentric behavior, enormous debts and alleged homosexuality were embarrassing for the royal family. He was dethroned based on the assessment results that he was not fit to be king. Three days later Ludwig and the psychiatrist who led the assessment were found dead. The official cause of death was drowning, although no water was found in Ludwig’s lungs. According to Ludwig’s will Neuschwanstein was to be destroyed after his death. Fortunately for us it did not happen. The castle became a museum only 6 weeks after Ludwig died. This creation, beautiful inside and outside, served as inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle.
It was 2 pm when I returned to Füssen, had a nice all-you-can-eat lunch buffet near the tourist information office and after a walk around the city returned to the hotel to get the backpack. It was time to head to my next destination Augsburg. The train ride was about 2 hours. I surprisingly easily found the hotel Dom and settled in my room. Exposed timber trusses gave it a look similar to the room in Villa Toscana and the same feeling of coziness. The next day was going to be relaxing. I made a list of what to see in Augsburg. It was in no particular order and had no timeframe. I did not need to get up by a certain time and could play it by ear.
Day 3, Augsburg
The jet lag caught up with me and I only slept until 3 am. After a blissful sleep on the previous night in Füssen I thought that my body clock already switched to the local time. Well, it did not. I tossed and turned hoping to get another hour or two of sleep and it did not come. At 5 am I gave up and turned on the laptop. If I could not sleep, at least I should do something useful.
It rained after breakfast and I stayed in the room until the rain stopped. At 10 am I was able to leave. The first thing to see was the Cathedral of St. Maria (or Dom St. Maria in German). The hotel Dom was located next to it. This magnificent cathedral dates back to the 11th century. I took my time to walk around it and to have a good look at the interior. My favorite part of it was the cloister with interesting tombstones in the floor and walls. I am by no means an expert on art and architecture. What I know about them does not extend beyond common knowledge and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on these subjects. That’s why I only share here the facts that I learned by traveling and the feelings brought on by visited places. The Cathedral made me feel elevated and I liked it.
I walked to the main square to the Perlachturm, the bell tower built over 1,000 years ago in 989. The entrance fees were posted at the bottom of the stairs and no one was there to collect them. I went up the old steep stairs. A small booth with a fare collector was just below the observation platform. Why did pragmatic and efficient Germans make this lady to climb 258 steps to do her job? The view from above and installed there signs gave me a good idea of where all points of interest are located.
Next was the Town Hall of Augsburg (Rathaus in German) famed for its enormous Goldener Saal (Golden Hall). The photo below shows its splendor better than I can describe it. The British destroyed the Rathaus in air raids during the World War II. The building was reconstructed after the war including the Golden Hall.
The place that I definitely wanted to see in Augsburg was the oldest social housing complex in the world called the Fuggerei. Back in the early 16th century a rich citizen Jakob Fugger decided to do something to fight poverty and he built houses for the poor at his own expense. The complex consists of 2-storey buildings with one apartment on the first floor and another apartment on the second floor. The design was well-thought out. Every apartment has its own entrance from the street. It includes a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. Fugger believed that needy people like anyone else deserve privacy and independence which help to maintain their dignity.
Apartments on the first floor have a small backyard and a wooden shed attached to the building to keep garden tools. There are cellars too for storage or to be used as workshops. The second floor apartments have attics. Fugger thought about minor details like air vents or uniquely shaped doorbells. The streets of the Fuggerei were not lit when the complex was built. The tenants could find their homes by “feeling” the doorbell handles.
The settlement is almost 500 years old and still in use. The Fugger family gradually extended it. It now includes 67 houses and 147 apartments. Generation after generation the family maintained it through a charitable trust which is to these days is headed by a descendant of Jakob Fugger whose motto was “Make the most of your time”.
The requirements for the Fuggerei tenants have not changed since the settlement was founded. They must be Catholics, indigent with no debt and Augsburg residents for at least 2 years prior to their application to live there. The rent is 3 daily prayers for the Fugger family plus the annual payment of 0.88 euro which is today’s equivalent of 1 gulden – the amount that the tenants paid in the 16th century. For comparison the entrance fee for visitors is 4 euros.
Two first-floor apartments are open to public. One is restored to show how it looked like in the Middle Ages, the other is renovated according to modern living standards and features a bathroom and gas heating.
I walked among the sturdy houses that were built to stand for centuries and marveled at their neatness and prettiness. Some residents sat on benches in front of their apartments or went about their business. How does it feel to live in a museum? Thousands of people visit the Fuggerei every year. Surely they must be a nuisance. At the same time it would be a pity to close public access to such an interesting place.
After lunch I decided to go to the railway station and to buy a train ticket for tomorrow. My flight was leaving from Munich and I had to be at the airport by 11 am. The train ride Augsburg – Munich is only 40 minutes, then it is a direct S-Bahn (Rapid Transit Train) line from the Central station to the airport that is another 40 minutes. This meant that I could have breakfast in no hurry and take a train around 9 am.
I turned towards the station. No worries, I had a free city map from the hotel. A walk along the River Lech took me past some nice sights like old town walls and gates, a working water wheel, cobbled streets and small squares with medieval buildings. One area had a network of narrow channels where water runs alongside or under a row of townhouses with shared side walls. Short pedestrian bridges across the channel led to a trinket shop or an apartment. Containers with bright flowers created a relaxed atmosphere of festivity.
For a while I knew where my location on the map was. Then I started to get lost and “found”. Every next time when I managed to take my bearings it astonished me how much farther I became from my destination. Augsburg is not a large city. The walk from the station to the hotel on the previous day was about 20 minutes. Why couldn’t I go back to the station if I had no trouble to navigate these streets yesterday? I asked for directions once, then again and again. Everyone told me that I was really close to the station; sometimes I saw road signs that pointed to it and followed them only to find myself in a wrong place one more time. What part of my brain is missing and why cannot I be like others who just go to where they want to be? Mad at myself, but nevertheless pleased with the walk I finally made it to the station.
Tickets are sold by vending machines that are very easy to use. These machines also tell you the cheapest way to get from point A to point B. I bought a ticket valid for any regional train that was departing after 9 am, quickly got to the hotel, had dinner nearby and packed my few belongings to be ready to leave after breakfast.
My tomorrow’s flight was to Bulgaria where I planned to stay for a month before embarking on an overland journey across Europe. During that month I am going to catch up on writing about my past trips; some of them were quite fascinating and these stories should make an interesting reading.