Fussen, Weissenberg and Nuremberg

 1 May

Happy May Day! We left a very cold, wet Munich, and arrived into a very cold, wet - yet still beautiful! - Fussen.  Luckily our hotel was literally a minute from the train station.  It's quite flash - big rooms and bathrooms, but no fridge or tea/coffee facilities - you can never tell what you're going to get in Europe!  

We had a wander around the old city while we waited for check in time (3pm).  We were hoping to find somewhere selling Glühwein (well at least I was) and Esther was hoping to find a May Pole, as it was the 1st of May.  We were both disappointed.  We did find a café that was open and had a cup of tea/coffee to warm up!  Although it was not the best weather the old town of Fussen is just gorgeous.  

Esther had found a place on her Google searching called Gasthof Krone which had a picture of ribs which appealed to her greatly.  We found it easily and had a play with the stocks before going in (as you do!).  Greg was unimpressed with his less than cold beer and some of our meals were disappointing (mine was super salty!) but others were not unhappy with it.  The medieval atmosphere was good though!  Keen to get a cold beer, we came back to the hotel (it was getting pretty cold and the idea of roaming around further didn't appeal!).  However the hotel bar was closed!  We found a bar next door and had a drink, and a cold beer for Greg, so he was happy.  It was still very wet.

Some long time blog readers (from past trips) might be thinking: doesn't Greg have another jumper?  The answer is, no, he doesn't!  His mum sent it to him when we were living in London in 1986.  A friend of mine reknitted the cuffs and fixed a hole last year and it's still going strong! I hope Wendy is delighted to see it!

2 May

We had bought the tickets to Neuschwanstein Castle a few days earlier.  Luckily there were still spots available for the 11.30 tour. Greg went to collect our tickets from the office this morning but it didn't open until 9.30. He went back at 9.30 on the dot only to be told the last bus was leaving at 10.05!  He rushed back and got us all organised in record time to get on the bus!  Thankfully it was not raining today, although it was still overcast and quite cold - I wore my thermals for the first time this holiday and appreciated them greatly!  The bus stops in Hohemscheangau Village, which like Fussen is as pretty as a picture, and you have the choice of walking up to the castle (which I've done twice now), or taking a horse and carriage ride (8 euro per person) or the bus (2.50 euro per person).  My walking shoes have been giving me grief so I was keen not to walk.  Dean, Esther, Lucy, Greg and I took the horse option.  Fiona felt badly for the horses and she and Peter took the bus!  We met at the top and joined the our tour.  Its skillfully arranged that you collect a hand held speaker in the language of your choice, which automatically starts and tells you the stories as you pass through the rooms.  Once again photography was banned, but as the guide leading us was quick to move onto the next room, I was a bit naughty and took a snap or two (and I wasn't the only one!).  Dean, Esther, Greg & I felt that the tour was much shorter than in the past and we'd missed out quite a bit, including the kings bedroom.  Well at the end there was an audiovisual presentation explaining that some of the rooms have been closed for renovations and showing those rooms in detail.  20,000 million euro has been put into this extensive renovation and it should be finished in 2024.  I didn't realise that in order to create his medieval castle, Ludwig had in fact demolished the ruins of a real medieval castle...which seems a bit counter intuitive!  Anyway it is a stunning castle and I always love to see it!

Greg, Fiona, Esther and I opted to walk down the hill - it was spitting lightly but not enough to pull out our umbrellas.  Esther got us to sing the "Happy Wanderer"song and we complied, however when she played it back her voice (nearest the microphone) covered ours completely which made us laugh!  

3 May

It was a beautiful (& cold!) morning today as we left Fussen.  Happy Birthday Jess!  The views of the mountains from the train windows were mesmerising.  We loved seeing the snow still on the peaks!

We arrived  at Weissenburg, Esther's home town, about 1.30pm.  As a surprise her cousin Yvonne was waiting to meet us.  She had left work to join us and be our tour guide!  The sky was so blue I took some photos as we walked to the hotel, just in case it didn't last! Yvonne took us to a bakery that was still open so we could buy a sandwich for lunch.  We were served by a surly young girl, not thrilled with the last minute rush on the bakery!  Esther had organised a mini  bus to collect us and take us up the hill to Walzburg.

Walzburg is an imposing fortress built between 1588 and 1610 by the Margrave of Ansbach. It features 5 bastions (hence a pentagonal shape) and a dry moat. The fortress sits on a hill high above Weissenburg. The fortress has been a jail, POW camp during WW1 and an internment camp during WW2.  Charles De Gaulle was one of the famous prisoners kept here.  Esther's mum's family lived here for some time after their escape from Königsberg, West Prussia, which ended up being taken over by the Russians.  They left all their worldly goods behind - and they were very wealthy - to have to start again in Weissenburg.

Back in Weissenburg, we wandered around the old city.  Most of the old city walls still exist, but only part of the moat is still intact.  The rest is playgrounds and car parks!  It's a beautiful town and we were sad we were only spending one night there.  We saw Esther's old high school (apparently considerably upgraded!) and  she told us a funny story about being dared to run across the frozen pond in winter when it was not quite frozen.  She made it across but the ice broke on the way back, and she had to rush home and wash her muddy clothes before her father found out what had happened!   It was a bitter sweet story as he was quite the tyrant and Esther's time in Germany was quite sad.

We made our way back to the square for a drink.  We found a café that served a delicious berry gin spritz and enjoyed some drinks in the late afternoon sunshine.  It got quite warm, sitting in the  sun, we loved it.    A young girl passing suddenly stopped and asked if we were Australians: she was an Aussie who has been living here for just over a year.  Before that she was in Ireland.  She misses Australia although she is enjoying life in the village. The village has a May Pole  up to celebrate  May Day and Fiona, courtesy of two gin spritzes, thought it would be a good idea for the girls (including Esther's cousin!) to dance around the May Pole, which we did, much to the amusement of locals!  Greg videoed us!  We moved onto dinner, and then called it a night :-)

4 May

We wanted an early start today which was just as well as it turned out the church bells next store start ringing enthusiastically from 6.30am!  No sleeping in at Weissenburg!  We bought breakfast from a café then headed to the train station to go one stop to Ellingen.  Esther said it was about a 20 minute walk from Weissenburg but we had limited time, and the train took 5 minutes!  We had to walk about 10 minutes from the station to the "Residenz Ellingen", the local castle.  We hadn't thought to check the website first, and it turned out you had to have a tour to see the castle, but it was only available in German and the next one was later on that day!  However, we could take photos of the courtyard and go into the schloss museum for 3 euro each, which housed the large collection of amber Esther remembered seeing from her childhood.  Again, all the exhibits were in German - we could use our phones to translate but it was a tedious business.  The weather was beautiful.

We took the bus back to Weissenburg and did a quick speed walk to the Romishe Thermen, the ruins of the Roman baths that had been discovered when some old buildings were demolished (to build new ones).  Weissenburg was called Biriciana in Roman times.  On the way we passed a large fenced off area.  It had contained council flats that were demolished in order to build new ones... and guess what turned up underneath?  More Roman ruins.  You wouldn't want to be a property developer in Weissenburg!  They may be on display the next time we visit!

Saying farewell to Yvonne - who was probably a bit traumatised after 24 hours with mad Aussies! - we took the train to Nuremberg.  Lucy continued onto Schwandorf, to be with her son Aaron (we're joining her tomorrow).  The rest of us - now down to 6! - checked into the Ibis.  After checking in we had a wander through Nuremberg, walking up to the castle for a lovely view over the city.  Then back down for dinner.  On the way, I was trying to find a hairdresser or a shop that sold hair products to get some more hair gel.  The one I've bought with me is not working for my hair, and I've been using Esther's products.  Not ideal as we are leaving them tomorrow!  You would think that wouldn't be a hard thing to do, but hairdressers in the main drag of Nuremberg are few and far between (& the one we did find, was sold out of curly hair gel).  Regular department stores have loads of makeup but no hair stuff.  When I finally did find somewhere that had hair  products, it was the same gel I already had.  Finding helpful sales assistants is a challenge!!  I'll have to look again tomorrow before we head off to Schwandorf!  

After declaring (this morning) that he really was eating too much meat Greg managed to eat a whole lot of bratwurst during the day - the lure of those sausages was too much for him to ignore :-)