Peace and Slumber in Fussen

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a tormented king who loved music, spent way too much money on his fantasy castle, was declared insane, and died a questionable death (suicide or murder?). No, I'm not talking about Michael Jackson, but King Ludwig II of Bavaria. I think the two kings would have gotten along well, but that is beside the point. Ludwig's taste in music leaned more towards opera--Wagner's to be exact. Ludwig was eccentric and most likely a homosexual (not that the two are related), and he wanted a home to escape to where he could fulfill all of his fantasies away from the demands of kingship.

For the purpose of this escape, he began to build Neuschwanstein castle in the Southern Bavarian town of Fussen next door to his childhood home/castle, Hohenschwangau. The castle took 17 years to build and only one-third of it was complete upon Ludwig's supposed suicide via drowning in 2ft. of water. He was 6 foot 4 inches tall. You decide whether you believe that or not. He only lived in Neuschwanstein for a total of 6 months before his suicide/murder, and 6 weeks after his death the castle was opened as a museum to the public in order to begin making money to pay back the huge dept he had incurred while building the castle.

Now, in case you are envisioning medieval castles, knights and lords--stop--this castle was built in the late 19th century. Ludwig even had an early telephone in the castle that he used to send telegrams into town. However, the decor and paintings throughout the castle do evoke every medieval fairytale imaginable. There's even a fake cave near Ludwig's bedroom on one of the upper floors that he had made out of plaster. Neuschwanstein was built as a fantasy castle, much of it inspired by Wagner's operas, and it appears that his fantasy has been channeled down through the years and has become the same fantasy as children today--aka Disney World. Take a look at Cinderella's castle in the magic kingdom, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Of course as Caitlin and I arrived at the Fussen train station, Disney World did not exactly come to mind. The station and town were quaint to be sure, but there was no magical awe or sparkle due to the steady drizzle and bone chilling cold. If anything there was dark magic afoot in the form of the evil witch, Mother Nature. There was also the mind-numbing, practical fact that we had to wander around in this weather for an interminable amount of time until we found our hostel--a family-owned place known as Happy Sleep House. Trudging through the rain, Caitlin and I pictured an irony in titles as Happy Sleep House turned out to be run by some not-so-happy, crazy German woman who scowled at us as we entered and showed us to a basement room with rats and a leaking ceiling. Ok, maybe it wouldn't be that bad, but we dared not hope for more. I joked with Caitlin as we walked away from the station that the name actually reminded me of a Chinese "chinglish" translation from my time living in China.

Crazy German or random Chinese hostel--we would only have to wait a few more steps to find out. Luckily the place was only a few blocks from the train station and even had a visible sign. The door was locked and appeared dark inside, so we rang the bell and hoped for the best. Our anticipation turned into a bit of a panic as we waited for what seemed like an enternity. Oh no, we thought, there is no one here...where are we going to go...must we wander Fussen all night through rain and cold, fighting fatigue and hunger and ...wolves...and then the door cracked open.

"Ah, hello?" A small Chinese woman peeped her head outside the door. Aha! Random Chinese hostel--I was surprisingly and oddly right. We muttered something about our reservation on hostelworld.com.
"Ah, yes. Come, come."
She opened the door to reveal a staircase in front of us with a little four-year-old boy standing timidly in his blue and gray pajamas. To our left was a shelf to place our shoes to avoid soiling the house floor--so Chinese--I felt instantly at home.After checking in, she showed us to our second floor room with a nice sized, blue-stained, wood framed bed with two twin mattresses. We were to share the downstairs bathroom with the other guests, which we never really saw but at the most were 2 or 4 persons since there were only two other rooms.

The whole place had a bed and breakfast feel and felt wonderful after staying in busy hostel chains with tour groups in Berlin and Munich. That night we were less asleep and more in a coma. We reluctantly got up the next morning to prepare for our visit to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, which are the main reasons tourists come to this town. Before we left, however, breakfast awaited us in our host's table nook in her kitchen. She had a spread of cereal,yogurt, breads, cheese, cold meats, jam, butter, hard boiled eggs, juice, tea, and coffee laid out on the table along with dishes set out just for us. We felt like Bell in Beauty and the Beast during the "Be Our Guest" song minus the singing dishes and beast.

No beast, no witch, no crazy German woman--this town wasn't so evil after all. Although the evil side of Mother Nature did hang around, and the rain and cold continued most of the day. In the late afternoon, the rain finally stopped. Even in spite of the rain, Fussen did reveal its magical fairytale qualities as we walked by its storybook pastry shops and visited its enchanting castles all backdropped by the breathtaking Alps and woven together with lakes and vast, green fields. Like most fairytales, our visit was short, but we felt one night was enough to satisfy our childhood need for castles and kings.

Next we are off to Venice with dreams of warm weather, gelato, and gondola rides. Let's hope our dreams come true!

Lori