Füssen

Detour to the Zugspitze, Germany's Highest Peak

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Before reaching our destination of Füssen, we made a detour to visit the Zugspitze. While en route, we pulled off at a scenic area on the side of the road. Cynthia passed out delicious Harbio gummy bears as we took pictures next to a beautiful river with the Zugspitze in the background.

It was a beautiful day to ascend to Germany's highest peak, but we approached it from the Austrian side because it's cheaper, faster, and has a nicer view heading up. The German and Austrian border runs right over the peak. Years ago, you needed your passport in order to visit the other side of the peak. Now, it's completely open at the peak, but you must make sure you descend down the correct lift. Otherwise, you'll have to pay the additional ticket cost.

It was beautiful at the top and we could see very, very far. The German side was more boisterous and some people were even taking a short climb to reach the peak's cross. They were hooked up to cables and wearing helmets.

What a wonderful unexpected detour.

Füssen, Germany was a great little base for visiting the nearby Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles. Other than that, it's a quaint little town with the picturesque German red roofs. However, it was quite touristy since nearly everyone who visits is primarily there for the castles.

We had a day and a half in Füssen and lucked out again with beautiful blue skies. This was also our warmest destination, with temperatures reaching 80°.

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Journey Through the Castles

Visiting Notes

Our hotel was generous to provide local "Füssen Cards" to our entire group. It's a bus card that allows visitors to travel for free. Most hotels can provide this if you ask, but always be sure to turn it back in upon checkout. The bus can be picked up on the northwest side of the village and the bus trip to the town of Schwangau takes about 10 minutes.

We reserved our castle showings about a month prior to our visit. The tickets have a lot of rules and guidelines regarding: picking up your tickets by a certain time, entering the castles at your scheduled time, etc. It's very regimented, but thousands of people visit the castles each day and this is the most efficient method to get everyone through. They have a special pick up line for visitors with reservations. We were in and out of the ticket center within five minutes. They also gave us a discount because we stayed locally!

There's a lot of waiting before castle visits. They do this so everyone has enough time to travel from one location to the next. For an additional fee, you can utilize a shuttle bus or a carriage ride to reach the castles. We walked and found the time estimations to be bit exaggerated. We had an hour wait before our first castle tour and then about two hours before the second tour, this excludes the time we spent walking from castle to castle.

They are extremely strict on photography inside of the buildings, so unfortunately, we only have outdoor images.

Hohenschwangau Castle

View From Marienbrücke

Walk past Neuschwanstein Castle and you'll find Marienbrücke or Mary's Bridge.
This where you can take the quintessential photo of Neuschwanstein Castle.
It was very crowded when we were on the bridge, but it had a beautiful viewpoint.

This tour group was about double in size compared to the first tour.
They gave us a handheld listening device to help hear the tour guide.
This castle was starkly different compared to Hohenschwangau. It had a medieval feel to it and was dark, but extravagant. The rooms were large and impressive with all the detail put into the design.
Most of the castle was unfinished due to King Ludwig's untimely and mysterious death. He was building the castle on credit and it ended up costing way more than he originally projected.
The King hardly got to spend any time living their full time. Shortly after his death in 1886, the castle opened up for tours.

If you plan to visit both castles, you will tour Hohen-schwangau first.
This was King Ludwig's childhood home; it's a bright and airy home with a romantic decor. There are colorful paintings on most of the walls.
We saw the queen and king's living quarters which were separated by different floors. They mimicked each other in layout and consisted of their dressing room, bedroom, and a sitting or office room.
The king and queen's bedrooms were connected with a secret passage.
When King Ludwig was an adult and moved into the king's quarters, he remodeled the ceiling above his bed so stars could twinkle above him like the night sky.