Fabulous Fussen

Three days in Fussen, in the Bavaria Region of Germany- Fussen is surrounded by mountains & the best thing about them is the fact that the other side of them belongs, in part, to our wonderful second home, Italy. We will always remember the absolutely unforgettable day we spent in the Dolomiti with Tiziana in 2009 when we felt we had reached the top of the world and we were sharing it with each other- Tiziana, Bill, Mikaela & me.

River and Mountains in Fussen

  The scenery around here is poster material.  I remember Mikaela finding voice in January when we were in the Italian Alps. She had been silent for a while- so unlike her- & then all of a sudden she just burst out with: This must be where the Christmas card pictures come from.” And this is the same, only this time it’s summer.

We went into the streets to have dinner at one of the local street cafes and found a band playing Tyrolean music. Long benches and tables were set up in the street with people singing and drinking the famous Bavarian beer. We sat & listened & watched as the locals came by, many of them dressed in their traditional lederhosen and skirts and aprons.  Not a look either of us is about to adopt, I can hastily assure you!  I just can’t see Bill in embroidered leather shorts & braces! And as for the dandy little floral/checked frocks & aprons and the blouses with puffed sleeves- not a good look after about 10 years of age! Unless you’re born to it, then it’s part of the culture and you wear it with pride. 

Bill's contribution to the local community

The ice cream is also famous here, & is mostly Italian! So we have enjoyed that experience as well.  Interesting, too- most of the wine is from Italy & I have really been enjoying the prosecco which I fell in love with in 2009, in Cividale & which I have drunk with great regularity ever since because we found our favourite one in Dan Murphy’s!  How’s that for luck!

Fussen is an old town right on the border of Austria- but we didn’t know it was so close till we went for a drive in the country yesterday & found ourselves shooting past a sign saying “Republic of Austria.”

Bill hates not having a proper agenda & kept asking, with increasing frequency & a rising degree of concern, just where we were going.  As I kept telling him, it didn’t matter where we were going.  It was the going that was the thing.  Who cares where we’re going?  Most of life is like that- we have no idea how things are going to turn out, but it’s all a fabulous adventure.  I was about to tell him that we couldn’t get out of Germany, but we were out already, so ...  Just enjoy!

Fussen Lake

We cruised on the large lake here yesterday.  It was magical.  One part of the trip was past the castle built by mad King Ludwig who was apparently a gentle soul, much more into the art of painting & music than the art of governing.  He died, allegedly in suspicious circumstances, in the lake we cruised on.  It seems his psychiatrist was with him, but no-one seems to know if the psychiatrist did the dastardly deed or if he lived on or drowned as well.  Ludwig was a good swimmer, so who knows?

Walt Disney uses Ludwig’s castle as his Disney icon.  We were going to visit it until the staff at the tourist information centre said that we would need to be in the parking station there at least an hour before the castle opened at 9 am as it’s an hour’s walk from the parking place & tickets are only sold at the castle, so we would need to get in line very early.

  Bill is fabulous & will happily do anything I ask, but the reason we have never before been to Europe in the summer is because of his absolute hatred of queues.  When he heard the news about the castle queues, he just went white!  So I decided that, as usual, most of what I needed to know could be sourced on Google, so we didn’t go to the castle, we did other great things instead- like visiting the cemetery at the local Franciscan Monastery!

Last night, Fussen held its annual bike race- 76 laps x 800m which my mathematician friend tells me is 60.8 kms.  There were teams racing & we sat on the verandah of the hotel & cheered them on with a drink. (Your probably won’t believe me when I tell you my drink of choice was actually a mineral water!)  It would have been hard riding, because the course was through the streets of the old town & they are all constructed of cobblestones.  It was action from every quarter, as some of the competitors fell and the ambulance had to be called.

Off to Austria properly, tomorrow, to Vienna, which we love.  I remember when we had the kids here 20 years ago; we took a photo of Larry literally walking on water in Vienna- it was minus 14 degrees Celsius & he walked out onto a small lake- he’s not very heavy- & we took a photo of him. In hindsight it was a silly thing to let him do because the ice could have been very unstable but all was OK.

So... more from the land of Mozart.