A German & Austrian Trip in 2001 - 1
Kochel and Füssen

Tuesday 11th September

Up at 3 & on our way at 0340. It takes 50 minutes to get to Stanstead from Islington, even at that hour, which was longer than I expected. The flight (Go at £50 return each) came in to Munich early & the luggage was on the carousel as we came in, so I ran to grab it. We were lucky to do the long walk to the car hire sooner than most, as the procedure was slow (note) & a huge queue built up. I drove through big road works (the autobahn had fallen off its embankment) to the Munich second ring road, a mistake, as it is being much improved (it needs it), so it was jammed. However, the Garmisch motorway was quite empty. We turned off (junction 10) to Kochel, only to find the Franz Marc Musuem, just South of the village on the East side of the road (well signed), only opened in the afternoon, so we had a coffee & a chat to American bikers, then walked down to the lake. Then, back to Gasthof zur Post for dinner-at-lunch with an old German couple from Oberammergau. Franz Marc was a German Expressionist painter of the Blue Rider (Blau Reiter) group which centred around Kandinsky, see Murnau, later in the trip). The museum was a pretty house & had more of his work than I had expected plus some of his father's more conventional Victorian paintings. I drove to Füssen, which involves going north again for a bit & then, down by the Forgernsee through Schwangau. I did not realise that Neuschwanstein was on the side wall of the valley here. It took me a little while to work out how you parked at the Hotel Hirsch I had marked down last year, mistakenly thinking it was on the lake. I booked in for two nights (189DM b & b for two per night) & was asked immediately if I had heard the 'news'. What news? Well, we soon saw on CNN in our bedroom, repeated shots of the damage the planes slamming into the World Trade Center & Pentagon, with actual shots, eventually from several amateur cameras, of the second plane disappearing into the South Tower, with a pause of a second before the fire ball. There was still much confusion by time we went out for cake at a café in the beautiful pedestrianised Old Town. The café was full of Americans, some of whom were only just hearing of what had happened.

Franz Marc Museum, Kochel Kochelsee from the Museum track Leaping Horses by Franz Marc Mandrill by Franz Marc Kochel, Gasthof zur Post & Smith Statue The Smith of Kochel was a big hero in the 1705 Peasant Revolt Füssen Castle from a side street The Brauerei Woaze in Füssen (left, red building) is a good place to eat The Fransican monastery & end of the Romantische Strasse Füssen from the monastery

Photos of pretty Füssen Füssen Castle across the Forgernsee Hotel Hirsch. Füssen Old Town is pedestrianised, fortunately In Füssen Old Town Füssen Town Centre