Eurotrip - Fussen (Ludwigs Castles), Rothenberg and Romantic Road

We arrive in Fussen, Germany in the evening after a long and emotional day at Dachau. We are met by Peter, our BnB host (a Rick Steves book recommendation), he met us and showed us to our mini house. The place was really nice and done with a lot of detail. Peter is a former hotel financier, now he dabbles in the hospitality business and runs a BnB in Fussen, his childhood home. Peter is very nice and knowledgeable about Bavarian history, it is very interesting. I learned that the Prussian empire bumped up to Austria and the Fussen line.

The next day we went to the castles, the reason for our trip to FUssen. These were built by the Ludwig family and the new one, the Neuschwanstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle , built by Ludwig the IInd, the "Mad king". He "committed suicide" by a lake near Munich, as possibly his brother tried to take control.

Above Neuschwanstein is Marys Bridge and when you cross it, there is a hiking trail, it was about 2pm when I started climbing up. Trail kept going up and would come to a vista, nice picture spot of the castle, slightly above it. Trail kept going up... I followed the trail to what I believe was the top of the near mountain.

From the stand point of a hike, it was amazing, on one side you have the swiss alps and on the other a vista of towns and green space and in the middle you have the two lakes, the castles and the mountains in the back drop. Probably one of the better hikes I've done

Dom went to work out and Jen and I went to dinner. Fussen / Bavarian food is meat and dumpling, very heavy, but filling and delicious.

The next day we headed out of town on our way to Prague, we took the scenic route, heading to Rothenberg via Romantic road, we drove through the below towns to Rothenberg. The road coming out of Fussen was gorgeous and some of the romantic road was ok too. I liked the Fussen side,because you see the swiss alps in the background, but overall would not come back to do the drive

• Augsburg
• Donauworth (fast to here)
• Nordlingen
• Dinkelsbuhl

We stopped in Rothenberg for a dinner and a few hours of shopping, sight seeing. This is one of the nights we had to cut (its a good thing), the town was a renaissance and gothic feel, it has old rich history, withstanding the 30 year war. We met an old lady who sold us drinking beer boots (Das Boots), she knew Rick Steves since he was a young buck travelling through europe writing his first book. After dinner, shopping, pastries, we jumped in the car and headed for Prague...

My take - Overall, I would not put Fussen or the castles on the must see list, its pretty cool, but for me the best part was the mountains and the hiking, something Im sure you can do elsewhere. The bottom castle was average at best and Neuschwanstein, while really pretty in my opinion is not worth travelling to this region for. There was a spot about a few KM from the castles that was a Gondola to the top of a mountain, but was closed in November. Romantic road and Rothenberg are not really my cup of tea.

• Peter said that Nurnberg would have been a good town to visit also, but Im not sure