A tale of three towns, after exploring the developed city Berlin, we decided to travel south to the countryside Bavaria region.
Füssen
The ride reached at 1.35am and the next train operated at 7.50, so we took a rest in Macdonalds at the München Central station. The night was so much better than in Barcelona Airport cause we had space to put our bags and we took turns to sleep and have coffee! Read up abit on our upcoming trip and felt so accomplished! Guess what though, we almost got pickpocketed as we took turns to sleep. A black guy approached us randomly and distracted by saying Hi while his other hand was pulling Xinyi’s phone towards him. I shouted at him to go away and thank goodness he went off. What an experience though!
After the rest stop, we took the train down to Füssen. We bought a 9.50am ticket but we tried to go for an earlier slot. Turned out that the train conductor was anal and wanted us to alight the next stop, but we just changed cabins and she couldnt recognise us(probably cause all Asians look the same) and we arrived in Füssen at 9.50 instead of 11.50:)
The journey to Füssen was so interesting and we saw Germany’s countryside with cows grazing in the green fields and sparse houses lying along sparse roads. The morning ride was magical. And we reached Füssen, expecting it to be town-like and country. Turned out that the place was a tourist town and flooded with tourists, argh! Its far different from Chianti and honestly I wasnt expecting it at all:/
We took a bus to the ticket centre and we saw even more tourists… There are also many horse carriages and there are SO MUCH horse droppings around😡 We then find our way up to the bridge of the legendary view, Marienbrücke! It was a 30+ mins walk up and the walk os honestly quite steep. We were pleasantly surprised to see cyclists actually cycling upslope and we were wowed cause they are actually faster than us hiking up hahaha!
After reaching the bridge, we managed to find an empty spot to take some nice photos of the Neuchwanstein castle and the view. Its really quite breathtaking to see the castle and the town in the backdrop and we are happy to have reached there before noon? Cause after we went back for a second time to get to the Tegelberg hiking path, it was so flooded with tourists and the guard has to limit the number of people on it. On a side note, we are very lucky because we heard that the bridge was only reopened to public ten days ago and we would have missed the awesome view if we came
earlier!
After lunch, we went to start our hike up Tegelberg. Its 1370m high and we were expecting to spend about 3.5hr to get to the top. Cutting across the crowded bridge, the roads narrowed and we were quite shock to see that there isn’t a proper path to hike. Given our non hiking gears and cameras dangling across our necks, it would be difficult to get up. However, we found a more gradual path and we still managed to get to a better view of Neuchwanstein and Füssen. We saw two girls picnicing there and one of them was wearing platforms (Limxin taught me this term). Omg how did she manage to hike up like this? After their meals, they even wanted to scramble up the mountain to get a even better view. Plucking up ALOT ALOT of courage and not willing to concede defeat that we lose to a girl wearing platform heels who can climb, we followed suit and this time round, we can see Lake Alpsee and the Hohenschwangau Castle! And a further 100m up and we could see the panoramic view of the scenery! Then we decided not to continue further and get down instead(most horrifying experience down though, thanks Xinyi for helping me with it)
After we got down, we walked to the castle and followed the romantic horse path down. Turned out its the most unromantic path because we just stepped into a minefield filled with horse poops, we were trying to avoid them with every step. Sigh pies, now the horses just annoy me rather than giving off their magical fairytale charms…
We then went to Lake Alpsee to see the blue of the lake and the 10 mins is really worth it! The natural colours of the lake blends in well with the reflection of the skies and trees and there are spots of wildlives(ducks and swans) and some boats out in the lake. Best part, it isn’t that touristy. After taking some cool shots and about to leave, we spotted a cluster of birds near a family which we thought was quite interesting. Upon nearer investigation, they are there because they were having a picnic! The swans and ducks are after a bread the kid was having lol! When another family came over to see, the swans scared the second kid and he dropped his lollipop. The swans were about to emerge victorious with their loot when the father took it back from them! The whole scene was SOOOOO CUTE LA! See my victorious father shot!
After heading back to Füssen, we went to check in our hostel and all I have to say is that I enjoyed Airbnb much better for the same price. Everything in the hostel is shared and needs money if you wanted something extra! Go and get airbnb if you wanna stay >2 people!
And we came out wanting to try German good but yay they closed at 6pm😒 had to eat Chinese food cause we dont want to spend too much or eat Italian in a German town. Had a good laugh when we saw all their Asian food which are the same thing with different sauces!
Rothenburg
The next day, we wanted to travel down to Rothenburg. Before we left Füssen, we bought some bread at Bäckerei. Omg they are damn good haha! You should try German Pretzels though if you like hard bread with some salt! It tastes nothing like Pretz from Singapore! On a sadder note, we bought the wrong tickets. Thinking it was Rottenburg rather than Rothenburg, we stupidly wasted some money purchasing a couple of tickets to a totally different town😑 Thankfully we found it on time and bought a replacement ticket that goes to the correct town! So lesson learnt, the spelling is really important! So be meticulous with it!
On the way to Rothenburg, the train crosses a cornfield and mountainous area that looks super picturesque, like those you heard in Enid Blyton books! We made a mental note of the stop and decided to give it a try!
Reaching Rothenburg at 2pm, we waited for our host and we saw how modernised the new town is. A big shopping centre with bakery, Asian food and a megamart called Kaufland… Its nothing like what we envisioned once again haha! Check in was wonderful cause its the first time we are not having a proper bedroom, but using a yoga studio as one WOW! Sadly the host was out in Greece and could only be back in the night so we did not get to do yoga with her hahaha!
So after charging our batteries, our next stop would be… THE CORNFIELD! We took the train the other direction but we missed our stop because we did not know you actually needed to inform the driver that you are stopping, and nobody STOPS at a boring cornfield… So we alighted at the next stop, which luckily has the countryside cornfields too! Spending about half an hour there taking some lovely shots, limxin and I are kind of wowed at our spontaneous travelling plans! The fact that we can just yolo and travel to a random stop without knowing if there’s a transport back, I really love our travelling styles!
After we headed back to the main town, we started heading down to explore the town itself. For those who are interested, Rothenburg is one of the towns preserved from the Medieval ages, and survived the WW2 becaus a state minister from the US saw its beauty and decided to not bomb the town for the mayor’s surrender. That kind of history is really one of its kind!
So walking down the streets, we really can’t help but get amused by… The freaking number of tourists(okay NOT amused but IRRITATED). There are people everywhere flooding the towns and there are more hotels than houses, like seriously😒 However, we did not give up and continue walking and scouting for food and wifi(the data in Rothenburg is really bad) We came to an Italian restaurant called Brot and Beit and we had pasta and Schneeball (Rothenburg’s famous pastry). I also called my mum HAHA! Sorry to disappoint you but this Schneeball tasted nothing magical, its just puff pastry with icing sugar powder, and tasted crap. We knew it was a tourist trap but we decided to try it out anyway hahaha!
Subsequently we walked to the postcard spot, Plönlein to attempt to capture a photograph, recommended by Wanling. Yay, its flooded with tourists once again😑 and we had to camp for a nice photo. Instead, we decided to come back for the blue light and capture the sunset somewhere else instead! The sunset is amazing and by the time we came back for the blue light, the magic of the town started to appear. There were still people but as the street lamps turned on, the town became really mystical and the blue light in the backdrop is amazing!
By the way, we witnessed some selfish tourists that shamelessly asked numerous people to help them take photos and they hogged up the entire photospot for 15 mins.. Please don’t be like them!
Returning to the accommodation was the most magical night ever as we could turn up the music and dance HAHAHA. Although cold, the night was really romantic and I can’t believe that our Xinson travels are coming to an end soon:/
The next morning, as we geh qiang and prepared our own breakfast(actually just coffee, milo, museli and bars), the host came down and greeted us with so much hospitality! She even offered to prepare breakfast for us, LOL! So yes, we had two rounds of breakfast and we really enjoyed sitting down to chat with her. Like what Limxin says, she has a lot of etiquette and she would spend a good time chatting with the guests over breakfast. So luckily we bathed early or we would have to rush out hahaha! Her sharing of stories about the town, Greece and Yoga was very eyeopening and we are very grateful towards her hospitality!
Würsburg
And so, we lastly travelled down to an impromptu stop, Würsburg. And its like a mini city bustling with people.
While it was only a stopover station for our next destination at Frankfurt airport Hahn, we managed to squeeze some fun out of it as we challenged each other to create fun contents within 2 hours. Xinyi did a snap story collection while I did a Vlog(its kinda cui so I am contemplating whether to upload it). However, we got to see a town that is kind of a merge of Barcelona and Berlin? Its a city with many schools so the city life is pretty lively. There are a lot of school exerscuions to the place and we see people skateboarding away!
After our content creation, sharing and laughing them off, we went over for dinner at the reccomended restaurant. While the food wasnt really fantastic, we spent meaningful time talking about our adventures and thoughts. It was also then when we found out… We booked the shuttle service to the wrong airport. There are 3 airports in Frankfurt and we all thought there was only one.. We quickly called haolin to help us with the booking. HAOLIN YOU ARE OUR LIFE SAVIOR:)
After dinner, we went over to wait for our bus and wew, our bus is delayed by 1h 30mins. Such an eventful day hor😑 lesson learnt, if you want to book connecting transports from different companies, make sure you have ALOT of buffer. We are lucky that our flight is a morning flight and not afternoon or we would have missed our flight.
And so, we are on our way back to London. A familiar feeling and we cant wait to settle down in our new environments. Mid terms are coming for my NUS friends, wishing yall all the best for them and may the profs be nice to you!
CinqeMinte 
