CONTINUATION OF DAY 5 (OF 19)
Leaving Lindau, we head east for about 140 km (an hour and a bit drive). This is my first taste of German highways! And while scary at first, I gotta say I love it!
THE AUTOBAHN
The famous no speed limit highway! I don’t know about y’all, but it seems to me, everyone refers to “THE Autobahn” – as if there is only one (foolishness!). Autobahn basically means highway, so Autobahn refers to all of the highways in Germany. And yes, ALL of them have stretches of road that have no speed limit. Once we realized there’s no speed, we tested the little Fiat 500, pushed it until it felt like it was going to fly away. I’m proud to say I got up to 192 km (in the rain!). Most vehicles were doing an average speed of about 140-150 km on the no-limit stretches, while some folks (mostly Audi’s and Porsche’s) seemed like they were passing me at warp speed.
FUSSEN
Füssen is at the end of the Romantic Road (Romantische Strasse) which runs 350 km north along the west border of Germany to Wurzburg. A beautiful old town, it’s also just a 5-minute drive from Schwangau, where the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein is (coming up on the next post!). Located on the Forggensee (lake), it also has the River Lech flowing through the centre and the spectacular Alps as a backdrop. Small enough to cover in a few hours, it’s one of those cities in Bavaria where you just stroll through the city without a definite plan.
YOU'VE GOTTA SEE...
OLD TOWN
This historic area is made for walking. Popular with tourists and locals, there’s tons of bright coloured buildings with beautiful frescoes (German: lufltmalerei), souvenir shops and outdoor cafés. A great place to just wander around.
KLOSTER SANKT MANG FUSSEN
Originally a medieval basilica that turned into a baroque basilica in the early 18th century, is dedicated to St. Magnus (an Irish missionary who came to central Europe during the Dark Ages). We didn’t go inside, just viewing from outside was enough for us.
SCHLOSS HOHES
The small castle of Füssen is a pain to find the entrance to, which is why when we finally found it, it was closed. There’s a museum/gallery inside, but all we saw was the façade, which is very nice and adorned with illusion-like paintings simulating windows and decorative scrollwork.
LECHFALL
Someone in town told us to “Hike to Lech Falls, the walk is quiet and peaceful.” Yeah right. I should have known since the word “hike” was used that some sort steep incline would be involved. Crossing the River Lech in front of St. Mang, we head uphill (no proper footwear!) to see Lechfall. It’s an artificial water fall, it’s kind of cute, but that’s it.
YOU'VE GOTTA EAT...
SCHNEEBALLEN
It’s so much fun saying this word. What is Schneeballen you ask? It translates to “snowball”, though I don’t get why it’s called that. It’s a traditional German pastry made of flour, eggs, sugar and butter cream. Then you roll it out, cut into strips, mash the strips into the shape of a ball, deep fry the sucker, then sprinkle with icing sugar (or chocolate, or caramel, or any other instant tooth-decay ingredient you can think of)….and Voila! You have yourself a Schneeball. Apparently you’re supposed to smash into pieces before you eat it, however we did not go that option. It looks a lot more appetizing than it actually tastes. It’s way, way, way too heavy, you’re sick after 2 bites of it.
RESTAURANT KELARI
We were kind of stumped on a spot for dinner.....all we knew was that we had enough schnitzel in Germany!
We eyed the restaurant from across the bridge and when we walked by, the smell alone was heavenly. We had complimentary shots of ouzo to start with, ordered their house white (15 € for the bottle) then calamari, octopus, chicken, pork, lamb, potatoes.......and so much more! All this food, and it cost us under 100 € for this incredible, fresh, traditional Greek meal.
Food tastes exactly like it does in Greece, the entire staff is extremely friendly, the restaurant decor is beautiful. We ended coming back the next night for dinner as well. Well worth it, and next time we're in Füssen, this is the only place we will go for dinner!