Eurotrip, April 1st: Die Königsschlösser

We awoke from a deep sleep at 7am. The view from our window was great, as it opened up to the Alps and the quiet city of Füβen. The Röcks served us a great breakfast of bread, meat, cheese, and soft boiled eggs. The bread included hard kaiser rolls and hearty, brown bread, almost like rye, only not as rye-ey. The meat was sliced salami and ham. We ate in a small alcove, seated in a booth around a round table. Leading right up to the table was a door to the kitchen, and every so often, Mrs. Röck would peek in and ask how we were doing. She told us about her relatives (cousins?) who work at a famous hotel in Munich, “a very well know hotel”.

We left the Röcks and headed for the train station where we stored our bags in a locker. From there, we hiked to the King’s palaces, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. The town of Füβen and the castles looked like they were right next to eachother on the map, but it was a good 2 mile hike. We finally reached the ticket office and got our “Königstickets.”

In 1999, I had visited only Neuschwanstein. This time, we were able to see both castles. It was definitely worth it. Hohenschwangau was very pretty and we had a good tour guide. There were many murals on the walls of battles, feasting, and the legend of the swan knight, who searched for the holy grail. Richard Wagner later wrote an opera, Lohengrin based on the story. In fact, Wagner hung out with the royal family, but left when he got sick of King Ludwig always asking him to play his operas on the piano. Hohenschwangau was built on the ruins of a ruined knights’ castle, so homage to the knights was the theme of the castle.

After the Hohenschwangau tour, we hiked up the hill to Neuschwanstein. We grabbed some bratwursts, ate, and walked to the Marienbrücke (Mary’s bridge). This bridge spans a gorge with a waterfall and overlooks Neuschwanstein. It was a nice view, but at the price of standing at precarious heights. We toured the castle. Some things I remembered from my ‘99 trip, but I saw some “new” things like the amazing throne room. It was all marble with brass chandeliers, studded with gem stones. Too bad photos weren’t allowed. Over all, the tour of Neuschwanstein wasn’t as good as Hohenschwangau, but still interesting.

After seeing the castles, we took a bus back to the train station in Füβen and took a faster regional train back to Munich. From Munich we took another regional train to Salzburg. On this train ride I called up a B & B (Zimmer) just outside of Salzburg. I used my German SIM card in my cell phone. Just as I was confirming my name with the owner, the card ran out of minutes. I found that there is no way to add more minutes, except by buying a “refill” card at a shop and type the number from the card into a 1-800 service. You’d think in 2007 they’d be able to take a credit card order over the phone! We traveled to Salzburg unsure of our hotel accommodations. We arrived at the train station in Salzburg at 8:00pm and went out to the bus terminal. I quickly bought a ticket because our bus, #1, was about to leave. We hopped on the bus, punched our Einzelkarten (single fare tickets), and the bus was off. Our original plan was to get off at Makartplatz and connect to bus #27 to Moosstrasse, a suburban area southwest of the city center. However, either we missed the stop or had taken the wrong bus, because after several minutes, the bus came to a complete stop in a suburban neighborhood far from where we wanted to be. I asked the driver if he was going to Makartplatz. He said, “yes, but I have to wait here for 20 minutes.” So wait we did, with no practical way to call our hotel. The bus resumed its route and we connected with bus 21 and down the Moosstrasse. I was confused as to which stop to get off at, since the computerized stop announcements (”nächste hält, ____” - (next stop, ___) were out of sync with where we actually were. So, I asked a guy and he told me when we had reached the Gsengerweg stop.

We looked around for 69-A Moosstrasse. To our aggravation, we saw house #69, then #11, #12… It was wonderful how they seemed to pick random house numbers on this street. We went back to #69. A sign on the doors said, “go around back for the inn.” Eventually, we found a house labelled 69-A, nowhere near Moosstrasse. A light was on behind a curtain in what I guess was the living room, so we rang the doorbell…and nobody answered. Now what?!

We knew the street we were on was dotted with B&B-style hotels, so we went across the street #96 Moosstrasse to Pension Frauenschuh (a Pension is a like a hotel where the family lives on the premises. Frauenschuh = lady’s shoe or slipper). Julie thought she had seen this hotel in the guide book and that it was good and cheap. As we approached the hotel, we saw a man getting ready to leave. I hailed him with a “guten Abend!” and he waved and walked back into the lobby. We met him at the front desk. I asked to reserve a double room. I used my German, but when I didn’t understand his responses, I gave up in tired exasperation and asked if he spoke English. We finished the reservation in English, although I think he thought I was mad at him and was a little brusque. I never asked how much the room would cost, but when we entered our room, I started to worry. Everything was brand-new and clean, the room had a TV (not common), and the hotel featured a sauna. We slept soundly. We had made it to Salzburg!