On the road back to Germany, Füssen, Austria, Honenschwangue

Changchun We left Vaduz, slipped into Austria our 7th. country for a bit, and headed for the town of Fussen in Germany on the banks of the River Lech. The Via Claudia Augusta went right through the middle of town. In fact in the late 1950’s they discovered actual Roman ruins. The Via Claudia Augusta connected Altino (present day Venice) to the River Danube with a military road than ran through Fussen and Augsburg. Near the end of the third century a camp was built on the hill where the High Palace sits today. We walked the Reichenstrasse, the main shopping street, where historic patricians’ houses were built side by side along the identical path of the original Via Claudia Augusta. It certainly looked like a pedestrian way, barely wide enough for cars, but a few autos made their way through the crowds. Many of the structures were highly decoratively painted to give their flat surfaces more style. At the end of the street, the town fountain was a statue of St Magnus, the patron saint of the town. We visited the courtyard of the High Palace, the former residence of the Augsburg bishops/princes. The facades facing the courtyard are highly decorated with illusionist paintings giving the “palace” far more architectural interest than it had. The structure now houses a gallery. The entrance to St Mang Monestery and Church, which dates back to the 9th century, was under construction and messy to access so we skipped it. We took a diversion by the “brotmarkt” the bread market, though to be the origin of the medieval town. Took a photo of the lute-makers fountain honoring Fussen as the cradle of lute-making in Europe. We left Fussen, heading to the Hotel Muller in Hohenschwangau, our next destination. Our very comfortable room had a view out the window of the Hohenschwangau Castle we’ll visit tomorrow afternoon. In the morning, we’ll visit the Neuschwanstein Castle, the famous original after which Walt Disney fashioned his castle. In the bright sunshine, we had a glass of rose in the beer garden. We walked down to the Alpsee, a lake with water so clear, we saw a pike chasing a school of small fish. We looked in a few souvenir shops, tried on fashionable German hats – bought none when we realized we’d look foolish at home wearing one!