During our stay at Munich, we also did a day trip to Füssen and Hohenschwangau! When we decided on Germany for this Europe trip, I was lamenting to my husband how we wouldn’t be able to see the castle that inspired Walt Disney (the Neuschwanstein Castle). But then he took a look at our schedule and made it work! 

Füssen is a town that sits just one kilometer away from the Austrian border. It’s also the closest “bigger” town that’ll get you to the town of Hohenschwangau, which is where the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles are located. We couldn’t quite time our guided visits for both, so we prioritized going to Neuschwanstein. Don’t ask me to pronounce a single one of those names. 

We left our hotel early in the morning at around 8:45 AM. Then came a series of long train rides to Füssen. We finally arrived to the town at 11:45 AM. However, we then had to take a short bus ride up to Hohenschwangau. 

It was there that we ate lunch. So many of the restaurants were packed and we eventually settled at a place called Dorfwirt that served Bavarian food. We had the weißwurst again, a cream soup, and cheesy spaetzle! We wandered a bit around the town after lunch, looked at the Hohenschwangau Castle from afar, and took some photos at Alpsee lake. The view was beautiful at the lake, but being from British Columbia, I think we’re very spoiled because we were kind of used to picturesque mountains and lakes like this. 

Then it was time to take another bus up to Neuschwanstein Castle. The guided tour was very short, and given the castle never got finished, it’s not a very long tour. But from what we were able to see, I can see how it inspired Walt Disney. The intricate details, the attention to storytelling and folklore, and how the place just feels and looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale. So beautiful! 

They don’t really let you take photos of the inside during the tour. But I wish I could have! There was an amazing bed, beautiful elaborate stories told on the walls, and even a stair pillar that was shaped like a palm tree at the top. 

We took a horse-drawn carriage down (it’s cheaper going down than up. 8€ per person going up, and only 4€ a person going down), which seemed to complete the fairytale fantasy. But when we got on the bus to go back down to Füssen, that’s when the illusion shattered. Apparently our 5:20 PM train was cancelled. My husband got the email like 30 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. I was like “huh? They’re allowed to do that?” 

We panicked a bit wondering if we should try to book some private bus back to our Munich hotel or something. But eventually, we decided we wanted to stay in Füssen for dinner and we’d take the later version of our initial train. We were just scared in case the 7:20 PM also got cancelled, because it’d be later by then and we’d have fewer options. 

Putting our worries aside, we ate at an Italian restaurant. I wanted a quick break from German food and we had an interesting pizza (flake tuna and fresh mussels), and a carbonara. Honestly, it was a comforting meal to have. I was so full after. We then walked around Füssen some more and then headed back to the train station as we neared the 7:20 PM ride. 

We faced another confusing situation where a train of the same number as the one we were supposed to board listed a different end point. Turns out there were 2 carts and we should get on the front because maybe the trains decouple when it gets to some midway stop. Ours would continue to go to Munich. And the other one would stop where it is. Maybe we just don’t have enough train knowledge, but that was quite confusing! 

Füssen is such a beautiful town. I guess it was a happy accident that allowed us to stay longer and properly enjoy it more. We left having walked around basically all their main streets! A lovely day trip in between our stay at Munich 🙂