Fussen/ Hopfensee--Engagement

Well we left on the 17th and arrived the morning of the 18th in Munich.  I will spare the flight details, because they stress me out, but we arrived in one piece and that's all that matters. We took trains to Fussen.  Getting train tickets was much easier than we thought it would be because you can use cards at the airport ticket stations.  (There will be a post about things I wish I'd know before going to Germany post later that will expand on this). The train ride was beautiful and J let me sleep most of the time (he's the best).  Once in Fussen we took a cab to Hopfensee where our hotel was located.  Vitusfort is an Irish Inn located above an Irish bar in Germany.  So with beautiful mountain and lake views we ate Irish food and drank Irish beer our first night in Germany.

Woke up on the 19th (*engagement day) to a fresh snow fall just enough to make everything sparkle.  The snow capped mountains in the distance were a beautiful reminder of how blessed we are to be able to take such an amazing trip.  We had a wonderful breakfast in the bar-- a great start to a day of many steps (over 26,000 by the time we were done). We took a cab to the base of Neuschwanstein Castle (famous for being the one that Disney based Cinderella's castle off of).  I recommend getting there early so that you can get tickets as they sell out fast and are for assigned times. The tours are a bit pricey and if I could have done the castle without the tour I would have--but that's not an option.  Our tour was 90 minutes after we got there so we walked up to Hohenschwangau the Castle King Ludwig II actually lived in as a child (he built Neuschwanstein but only lived there 70 days).  We enjoyed taking photos outside Hohenschwangau, but did not take the tour there (Though our hotel clerk suggested it for a more historical view if you are interested in that).  With about an hour to go, we started the walk down from Hohenschwangau and up to Neuschwanstein. The trip should take most adults 40 minutes, with children plan for more time.  There is a carriage that you can pay 6euro each for to take you up, but it isn't a romantic carriage.  It is a large buggy for about 10-12 people and it take 30 minutes behind smelly horses. Even if you take the carriage the last 10 minutes of the walk are on your own. If that's your thing go for it, but we walked.

The just fallen snow made the setting that much more like a fairy-tale.  Which was a nice distraction from the 40 minute walk up the hill.  My legs burned on this walk, it's fairly steep in some places and is not for the faint of heart.  During the last 10 minutes of the walk there are places to stop for snacks, a pretzel or donuts.  We made it up the hill before our tour and wanted to explore, however discovered that the roads behind and above the castle were closed because of winter weather, so some of the photos J was excited to take couldn't happen.  He seemed more frustrated by this than I typically expect from him.  (Which would make more sense later) as he had planned to propose up there, with a view down onto the castle.  But I didn't know that, so I was just focused on being excited for the tour.  We did the audio phone tour, again really basic info, I could have gotten from a tourist book, I would have rather learned about how it was used during WWII (To hide art the Nazi's stole), but it was very straight forward.  The Castle is beautiful, and over the top, but it's a castle, so what do you expect?

After the tour (Which lasts about 30 minutes), we walked back down to Alpsee (the lake in the town in which the castles live) to take photos. After a bit I convinced J to get lunch. We ate some local fair and J had a beer.  For being a tourist town the food we got was pretty affordable.  (but look out for the post about things I wish I'd known). After Lunch J stated that he wasn't done taking pictures and wanted to go back. I was not excited by this, I was cold and wanted to go back and explore old town Fussen a bit more.  But J was insistent, we walked down a path around the lake and J asked me to hold his bag so he could get his camera out.  He took a few more pictures and then asked me if all of my fairy tale dreams had come true?---earlier in the day as we were walking back from the castle I mentioned that this was making all of my fairy tale dreams come true.  At first I said yes, then I started to realize what was happening and said, "Well almost".  J said something to the effect of, "Well let's fix that".  He told me he loves me and asked me to marry him.  After squealing a bit, I said YES!

We took the bus back to Fussen and walked around town.  We enjoyed the swans on the river, and walking along the path.  Getting lost and finding Jesus and Mary on a random road in Fussen.  We stumbled on a shop that sells "Snowballs"  Little balls of dough scraps that are covered held together with sugar and covered in chocolate.  Our mistake of course was only eating that for dinner.  But we'd learn that lesson the next morning. After exploring Fussen we took the bus back to our hotel in Hofensee and made very exciting phone calls to family about the engagement.  Hearing how excited the excitement in our families voices made the experience that much more special.  Looking back the only thing I wish I would have only told family and let J and I just enjoy our engagement for awhile.  I wish it could have been without social media buzz for a bit longer.

The morning of the 20th I woke up and had to pinch myself to realize that I'm engaged.  YAY! exciting.  Great breakfast again very tasty.  Took a few wrapped cheeses for the road and headed out. We quickly left the land of beautiful mountains and exchanged it for something that looked like the prairies of southern Minnesota.  --- Journal to Continue in ULM, Germany

Food at Vitusfort Dinner: 3/5
Food at Vitusfort Breakfast 4/5
Accommodations at Vitusfort 4/5  The room was beautiful, the view was break taking, but it was difficult to leave on our last day, because the hotel clerk was not around in the morning to help us call for a cab and they were closed for dinner on Monday nights and the places she suggested in town were all closed for the holidays.