Fuessen, Germany

Our poor couchsurfing host in Fuessen. We changed our arrival time on him multiple times do to late trains during the day, missing connections and then missing the stop near his little village! One couchsurfing tip: Be willing to search for hosts right outside the area you’re looking for. This gentleman and his family lived about 15 minutes outside Fuessen and welcomed us to their home when I had been unable to find anyone at all in Fuessen who could host us. Those in the main cities receive a lot more requests from travelers so sometimes you have better luck expanding your search.

He ended up picking us up really late at night in some sort of vehicle that was similar to a tuk tuk perhaps. He drove us through the countryside to his home about 10 minutes away and it smelled like we were back in Nebraska- lots of cows! The only difference was there were also mountains in the distance. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The hills were a rich green color and the water was a dazzling bright blue. I could’ve stayed there a long time.

We had a long night trying to fall asleep that evening. His home was adorable, but definitely a country home with open windows which include lots of flies in the house buzzing around our heads while we tried to sleep. I wasn’t used to that and didn’t sleep a whole lot which made for a very tired day the next morning. But off we went prepared with directions to the nearest bus stop that our host had given us. We found it without any trouble and soon were on our way to Fuessen and seeing the castles.

This was one of my favorite sights in all of our European trip. Neuschwanstein Castle does not disappoint. We left our backpacks in the lockers at the Fuessen train station and caught a bus up to the castles. It took about 30 minutes to get there and then we walked through the little town up to the castle itself. Buy your tickets ahead of time online!!!!! We got there early in the morning as you purchase a ticket for a specified entrance time, and the line was already huge. I don’t know how we would’ve made it to see the castle that day if we had to wait in that line. There are three different ticket options: you can walk up to the castle, take a bus up or take a carriage. We chose the bus for a one way trip up and then would walk back down. We arrived at this decision after multiple blogs I’d read where visitors waited for a really long time to get a carriage. Or ended up waiting a really long time to catch a bus back down after they were done- the same amount of time they could’ve walked down. Carriages are pricier than the bus so in the end we decided to take the bus up instead of hiking uphill the whole way and then walk back down. We were happy with our decision and even happier we listened to the staff who told us to get in line for the bus WAY ahead of our booked tour time in the castle. Good advice as we were waiting for a long time and getting worried we would miss our tour! There’s not refunds if you miss it and there were a lot of stressed tourists in line with us. Fortunately we all made it with about 10 minutes to spare.

Photography is not allowed in the castle but it was spectacular! Definitely different than Versailles and most other castle tours. This one looked like Disney World on the inside, color everywhere! Instead of diamonds, there were colored jewels. The walls and ceilings were bursting with color and paintings of fairy tales. It struck me as similar to old churches who’s walls are covered in murals of Bible stories- however instead of a church and Bible stories, this was a castle and fairy tales. The tour is only about 30 minutes long and I was glad we did it. There are beautiful views of the mountains around the castle as well.

When we finished our tour and headed outside it had started raining again- surprise surprise. The bus had dropped us off right near the Marienbrücke (Mary’s Bridge) which it the classic photo spot. But we hadn’t had time to snap photos due to the long lines waiting for the bus. So when we were done with the castle we hiked back up to towards there to head out to the bridge (about a 15 minute hike up from the castle). It was very cold and windy but we got awesome photos and I loved it!

There were food options on the way walking down, but we decided to see if prices in the town were better (they weren’t). We should’ve just eaten at the midway point, but once we went down we didn’t want to walk all the way back up. We splurged and decided to choose a nice restaurant for our meal since there were downpours outside and we had not come prepared- our umbrella and my rain jacket were in our backpacks at the Fuessen Train Station! Our meal ended and we wanted to still see Hohenschwangau Castle but the rain was still streaming down and it was COLD. I gave up and bought a rain poncho while Pablo insisted he was fine with getting soaked. I’m just a chicken when it comes to being wet and cold so I was grumpy by this point but we decided to walk up to Hohenschwangau Castle, a much shorter hike than to Neuschwanstein. We hadn’t bought tickets to tour this one so we just walked around the outside a bit. There’s no real good spot for a photo and we were both cold and wet so we didn’t stay long. On the hike back down we stopped by the lake which was another beautiful shade of blue. You can rent paddle boats and explore it, but it was empty given the weather.

Be sure to check bus schedules when you arrive so you know what time to catch one back to Fuessen! We were able to time it right and make it back without having to wait too long. But they only came once an hour I believe so just take a quick look at the schedule when you arrive.

Back in Fuessen we walked around the streets a bit and walked out to the river. It was Saturday and the tourist office was closed so that was a bummer. But it was nice just walking around and checking things out, Fuessen is also really small similar to Bruges. We were still cold and tired at this point though thankfully the rain had stopped. So we decided to head back to the station and catch an earlier train to our next destination about 2 hours away- Munich!

Helpful Resources:

Flyer with information on Fuessen: imageflyer-fuessen-en_05

Map of Fuessen and the Castles: Fuessen Castles Map