Fussen, town of castles and mountains

We knew that we wanted to go back to Germany after Amsterdam, but we weren't sure where. Once again our guidebooks came through for us: Fussen. Fussen was, pretty much, the land of classic castles and mountains. Awesome! Quite possibly my favorite things. You know the Disney castle? I've been to the castle that inspired it: Neuchwenstein. Also the one that came before it, Hohenschwangau. Think I spelled them both correctly. Either way, they were cool. We took guided tours of each so it was educational too.

Our hostel in Fussen was really really nice. The three of us had a four person room to ourselves, we made an awesome new friend named Jean, and they had the best breakfasts of any hostel or hotel we've been!

The second day we split up. Alex and I were going to hike to the peak of Sauling, 2042 m. Jean, the great new friend, came with us. It was a beautiful day for a hike and the view was absolutely gorgeous. Just indescribily beautiful. To one side we had the smooth green landscape, dotted with small towns and lakes in shades I'd never before seen. To the other side was the vastness of the mountain range, stretching off in the distance into the east and to Austria in the south. It was amazing. However, we ended up on the wrong path and did not, in fact, go to Sauling. Whoops. Instead we ended up going way too west and ended up at Tegelberg, a little rest stop type place at the height of 1707 m. I couldn't bear to turn back without having climbed to the top of something, so we checked the map and found another peak nearby: Branderschrofen, an acceptable height of 1881. The hike was fine, exhausting but fine, until we reached the very end. We couldn't have been more than 50 or 100 feet from the peak when suddenly the path ended. All that remained was a short climb, then the narrow rocky side of the mountain countinuing on and up. It could have been called a ledge, had it been smooth and/or path like. That was the end for Alex, but Jean was willing to try going farther if I was willing. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to make it, physically or otherwise, but I was too stubborn to turn back. And I did it! I didn't stop and I didn't fall to my death and I did make it to the top! It was exhilerating!!