Well, this post was supposed to have been called “my fabulous Portugal vacation”, but after the disappointing loss of my passport not to mention everything else in my wallet I had to opt for a few days off closer to home. After three days of running around taking care of the bureaucratic mess (“Papierkram” in German) and many expensive phone calls to Canada and Portugal later, I could do nothing but wait for things to trickle in, in the coming weeks. Rather than (a) go back to work and lose my vacation days or (b) sit at home, I convinced Jeff - who was there for a visit - to come camping and it was great!
The weather was gorgeous, I got to watch a few extra German European Cup games with the home crowd, and got lots of hiking, biking shorebird watching and good food in (including Allgäuer Käsespätzle which is a kind of deluxe macaroni and cheese). It was one of those not-overly planned trips where we hopped off the train, found the info centre and randomly picked one of the two campsites accessible by public transportation, which meant a bus four times a day. Normally everyone who comes to Füssen does a simple day-trip to Neuschwanstein, the tourist-overrun castle which inspired Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom. My favourite moment came while getting on the bus with my backpack to the tiny town with the campsite. The bus driver immediately started yelling the only English she knew I think: “No castle! No castle!”. At least she seemed embarrassed when I told her in perfect German that I wasn’t interested in going to the castle but to the campsite.
Check-out the view from the campsite; you can even see the castle!
In the other direction was the lake, which I snapped a few pictures of during sunrise at 5 am (I just happened to have to use the facilities at the right time).
While waiting for the bus we killed time wandering around the quaint little town of Füssen. This is city hall (the “Rathaus”) with a view of the Alps in the background.
Think these “Schneeballe” (snowballs) look good? We thought so but they were shockingly bad - just deep-fried-dough tastes-like-nothing-but-oil with some cheap chocolate on top. Let this be my warning to you!
Neuschwanstein from the Marienbrücke (Marion’s bridge).
This was kind a random place we stumbled upon with our rental bikes. It’s the “path of the senses”. The idea is you walk around the path with bare feet, feeling and internalising the textures of the different surfaces beneath your feet. I think I’m too much of a wimp; I thought most of path was waaaay too sharp, especially the broken-glass stuff in blue!
Part deux of the foot senses path: step through progressive buckets of mud, clay, and some substance I couldn’t identify. Maybe it’s hard to read the expression on my face but I’m not really relishing the experience.
For distraction after the poky-path and mud-bath we checked out junior ski jumpers training on grass which was kind of cool to see.
