Füssen, Germany, Sat 27 Dec 2008

I was very sad to be leaving our winter paradise. We had one last play in the snow before catching the train back into Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I also experienced another stroke of luck this morning, the receptionist hadn't given my credit card back (and I hadn't noticed) and she managed to catch me just before I boarded the train to give it back. It seems our trip was going to be filled with lost items and leaving things behind (there was yet more to come) but karma seemed to want us having a happy trip, maybe it was making up for us being sick...

We were trying to work out the best way to get from Garmisch to Füssen. Even though they're quite close together the mountains make it a little tricky and there are no direct trains and only a very slow irregular bus. Through the online train timetable we had found a faster indirect route on trains, we double checked things at the tourist office against the bus and it was indeed faster but we were actually going through Austria! We would have one stop in Austria before heading back into Germany for Füssen. Sounded fun to us so we decided to go for it.

Unfortunately things didn't quite go our way and the train was cancelled at the last minute (thankfully there was an announcement in German over the speaker... pity we didn't speak German... took us about 10mins to work it out!) Now you have to understand this put us in a tricky situation, there were only 2 buses going to Fussen, and 1 was now leaving in 5 minutes! The other was another 7 hours away! We were in trouble so we tried to divide and conquer, Nick headed for the bus stop to try and get tickets, I headed to the train reception to try and get refunds, big queue, no time.. I sprinted to the bus and made it just as they were about to drive off... with Nick on it and not me! Phew!

Turned out the bus ride was great with gorgeous scenery through the alps and all the small German villages. And I mean all. The bus stops in every single little town and village along the road. It was a slow but pleasant trip. We did have to change buses at one point and while we were waiting for the next one I saw a large tractor heading down the road with snow chains! Never seen anything like that before, it was a strange sight.

When we arrived in Füssen I was happy to see there was still snow everywhere (yay!) and it was still freezing (not so yay!). In fact I'm sure it felt colder in Füssen then it did in Hammersbach. It was certainly hovering around the -10deg mark. We found our B&B guesthouse (called a Pension in Germany) just out of town.

Füssen is a beautiful quaint little place with a large town hall up on a hill overlooking the icy blue river and next to a snow covered park. The houses and buildings are so different with gorgeous colours and paintings/murals on the walls, wooden window balconies and outside shutters with flower boxes. Füssen is right next to the most famous castle in Germany and yet most people overlook it because they come down from Munich for the day. I am so glad we decided to stay a night there, it was one of the most beautiful towns we had visited and because all the tourists didn't stay it was quiet and full of only locals at night which was fantastic!