2010 Germany

We stayed in Fussen, Germany - a charming tourist town in southern Germany on the German/Austrian border, (in the old Bavarian region). Fussen is built around an old castle, and part of it falls within the old walled city. Businesses and homes are brightly painted, along with some added exterior painted scenes on buildings.

Pharmacy door detail.

Painted church. You'll find all kinds of painted buildings throughout the region.

Photographer's sign.

Neuschwanstein Castle, near Fussen. This was the castle that Walt Disney modeled for the Cinderella castle for his animated movies and for Disneyland. It was built around 1868, by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The king was enamored with reviving the look of medieval castles, and had an Italian architect design this castle. Though it looks practically new on the exterior, the interior was amazing! It was the most gorgeously decorated castle I've ever seen. Painted murals of scenes from Richard Wagner's operas, ornate carved furniture and woodwork, intricate patterns and designs were throughout the castle, with gold leaf accents. There were also new features that other castles did not have -- running water, flushing toilets, and central heat! If I had a castle - this would be my kind of castle!

King Ludwig had great plans to build 2 more castles following his fantasy themes. However, the governing council didn't appreciate this, as there were some wars to fight and budgets to meet -- so they had him declared insane and replaced by his uncle. In order to avoid being locked up by them, King Ludwig fled the castle to escape, and was found 2 days later, dead in a nearby lake.

Sounds like a conspiracy to me...

No photography allowed inside -- I guess you'll have to come and see for yourself! The tour takes 300 steps up and down throughout the castle!

A rainy day in Fussen - somber and gray. We took this opportunity to hit the laundromat, with a huge pile of dirty clothes. We asked the hotel desk clerk and she directed us to a service that does laundry. We traipsed through town, with our dirty laundry, and found that they took several days and charged a lot (6 euros to do 1 pair of jeans)! The man there told us to check local camping grounds, where they might have a washer/dryer for campers to use, but no luck in finding one... Then we asked the Tourist Information desk, and was directed to the next big town, 30 minutes away, and drove off there, only to find a dry cleaner. After asking at least a half dozen more people who gave us vague directions -- the last one sounding really positive, which led us to: the same dry cleaners! We were ready to shoot someone, but couldn't decide who. We drove back, with dirty clothes, and ended up hand washing 3 days worth of clothes to hold us till we could find another laundromat.

(We never did find a laundromat in Germany, by the way...)

Sad flower girl

A real child, playing by the fountain in the square.

We had grown tired of eating ham and cheese throughout Europe. Ham and cheese for breakfast, ham and cheese sandwiches, ham and cheese on pizza and pasta, ham or cheese on almost everything you can think of.... So we were happy to see German food: weinerschnitzel, bratworst, spaetzle, pretzels, putensteak, potato salad, and many other dishes. One of our first meals, Kevin ordered a curry wurst, thinking it would be some exotic sausage...

and he got a deep fried hot dog with brown gravy and curry powder sprinkled on top. Not sure if it should have been titled, wurst curry instead.