I have just a few days to visit Munich and Bavaria in late Aug. My tentative plan is to spend two days in Munich and two days in the Fuessen/Obergammerau region. I plan to take the train from Munich to Fuessen, but to pick up a car there for the two days, before taking the train from Fuessen back to Mainz, where I am visiting friends.
Tentative itinerary is as follows...would appreciate any suggestions for alterations if what I propose doesn't sound feasible or wise. Arrive in Fuessen between noon and 1PM. Pick up car and head to Neuschwanstein . Tour Neucschwanstein castle (I will book ticket in advance) and possibly Hohenschwangau as well that afternoon. Spend that night in Hohenschwangau. Day 2: Paragliding over Neuschwanstein in AM. (Too old to put this kind of thing off any longer...). Afternoon, drive to Linderhof, looping south through Austria. If enough time, head to Kloster Ettal, before going to Oberammergau where I will spend that night. Day 3: Morning in Oberammergau, driving back to Fussen via Steingaden. Midday train back to Mainz. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33452 posts
Sorry, Melissa, it doesn't make sense to me. I haven't followed all of your previous threads and questions so perhaps you have already explained and I've missed the boat. My thoughts - why would you spend money to rent a car and spend money to use a train on the same day. It seems to me that you are paying twice. You intend to arrive in Fuessen by train, rent a car and then pay to park it? What will you do if Day 2 is rained out or canceled due to unfavourable winds? Which is more important - the "castles (really palaces)" or the paragliding? I'd put the most important thing on the first day so if it were cancelled the first day I could try the next day. You will drive the car all the way back to Fuessen (west), then take the train to Munich (eastnortheast) and then the train to Mainz (northwest)? If you have the car anyway why not drive back towards Frankfurt and Mainz straight from Oberammergau? What am I missing?
Posted by
OP
Torrox, Malaga, Spain
84 posts
Thanks for the feedback. I must not have been clear about my plans. Here's the deal...I'm taking the train to Munich from Mainz, where my friends live. I plan to spend two nights there and then two days/nights in the Bavarian countryside. I had originally planned to take the train to Fuessen and make it a base of operations to visit Newshwanstein, Linderhof and Oberammergau and do the paragliding. The paragliding is important enough that I don't want to give it up to buy more sightseeing time, but not important enough to risk wasting time waiting in line to get a tour Neuschwanstein ticket (I'll book ahead). If it rains...well ,I'll move on to enjoy other things. But as I read about the area and checked bus and train schedules, I realized that if I had a car for just those two days, I'd be able to see more of the countryside and possibly get in more specific sites....such as the Ettal Abbey and maybe Weiss Kirche. Checking car rentals in Munich and Fuessen...cost is the same, but if I have to return the car to Munich before taking the train back to Mainz (no...I don't want to drive the whole way back) I lose about two hours of sightseeing. Instead, I can take a train from directly from Fuessen to Mainz. And I may reduce my car rental in Fuessen to a single 24-hour day (afternoon to afternoon). Yes, this combination car/train is more costly than renting in Munich, but in this case, time and freedom are more important to me than the cost of the train ticket from Munich to Fuessen. Specific questions I have: Is it better to go through Austria to get from Hohenshwangau/ Fuessen to Linderhof or not? Pros...a different route to see than coming back to Fuessen. But not sure if there are cons.
And am I trying to cram to much in on that one day?
Posted by
Paradise
6926 posts
"Thoughts? Suggestions?" With just 4 days, I'm not sure the long trip to try to squeeze in both Munich and Füssen is worth it. You can see the sorts of places you wish to see in less time by staying closer to Mainz. Castles: there are some amazing and genuine castles near Mainz: Marksburg: 800-years old, intact, never destroyed: www.marksburg.de
Rheinfels: http://www.st-goar.de/17-1-.html There are also handsome villages, not that different from Oberammergau, in the same area (Middle Rhine Valley.) Bacharach, Oberwesel, and Linz are among the finest. N'stein, Linderhof and H'schwangau are late 19th century palaces, not castles. Linderhof is especially ostentatious, but you can see similar palaces that are less often in the crosshairs of tourism and closer to Mainz. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187391-d2315928-Reviews-Schloss_Stolzenfels-Koblenz_Rhineland_Palatinate.html One truly eye-popping Bavarian palace is the "Residenz", only 2 hours from Mainz - in Würzburg, a nice town to visit for other reasons as well. http://www.residenz-wuerzburg.de/bilder/rundgang/s-kaiser/spiegelkabinett.jpg
Posted by
OP
Torrox, Malaga, Spain
84 posts
Thanks Russ. I'm actually going to be in the Mainz area for 13 days and my hosts seem to have a nice itinerary planned including several of the places you mentioned. The trip to Munich/Fuessen is in part to give them a break from a full-time guest for 18 days and to give me a taste of another part of Germany, that I may come back to in the future. I contemplated a few days in Berlin instead, but was persuaded by my hosts that I should save Berlin for sometime other than in August, when they said it's not at its best and when they can come with me.