Three days in Bavaria: Augsburg

Day 1, Munich

Day 2, Füssen

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 11^th 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 16^th 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 16^th century. For comparison, the entrance fee for visitors is 4 euros.

Two first-floor apartments are open to the “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.