Thursday, 12th of August, 2021.
Next day, a German couple, Susan and Edgar, drive me until Fussen. The castle is not far from there and the town is already full of tourists. Another lovely lady, Melanie, works nearby the castle and pick me up. Just like Ane in the day before, she drops me at the parking lot. Neuschwanstein it is a very beautiful castle! Don’t be afraid of asking for help or information if you get a bit lost or are not sure from where to start and where to go. It is a huge complex, full of buildings, restaurants, hotels and many parking places. But there are two Tourist Info Centres and in both I was super well treated. I get a map, then I hid my backpack in the woods and go first to visit the less famous Hohenschwangau castle. It is less charming but still cute. And by the way, at its entrance is the only place where you don’t need to pay 50 cents to use the toilet. Hundreds of tourists paying a fortune for the tickets, for the parking, eating in the restaurants and they chard for the toilets? Ha!
This time, I don’t even try to visit inside for free. It is way too famous for that but also because I have heard that it is not that nice inside as it is outside.
Even though Mary’s bridge, the best spot for a photograph, it is closed, me and quite a few other people, crossed the police barrier (only a tape) and get to another spot, slightly secret, just beside the bridge, to the left. Great photograph! Unfortunately, I forget my zoom lenses at that spot and only realize that when I am already down, back to the parking. I leave all my luggage at the tourist info and go back up to look for it. But before doing that, I do ask to a lady at the tickets office and to the security guard (both speaking great English) if anybody drop it there. Nope! Funny thing is, both of them ask me where exactly I left. Since I cannot say that I crossed the police barrier, haha, I just say it is somewhere in the trail. Anyway, I find it at the same place =)
Back at the tourist info, the man responsible for the place it seems surprised that I found it but he is happy for me. Then he asks me how I am leaving and I say by hitchhiking. He asks if I need anything, a cardboard or a marker, and when I say I have everything, he evens takes a look at my water and whisper: “You have water, so you are fine”. So nice!
I try to hitchhike again with the same plan of last day. This time, another family, Marion with her son Lauren, and Max his friend, pick me up. They make a quickly stop at an Unesco patrimony church, Pilgrimage Church of Wies. Good for me! They live just out of Munich, perfect for me so I could easily hitchhike in direction of my next Castle, in Burghausen. But she also invite me to spend the night at her apartment. Her son, for some reason, just loved so much having me over, haha. At their apartment I meet her daughter, Remi. A very strong spirit teenager. Next morning I first help Marion to paint two walls in Lauren’s room (I am happy to help but also it is raining so I could not leave) and precisely when it stopped raining, we had finish so he I go…!
P.S.: When we are at the church, one of the priest, believes that me an Marion are the mothers of each boy. Isn’t curious that he fought the Brazilian boy was my son? We were not speaking in Portuguese inside the church. Curious! Anyway, from a wedding which occurred earlier, he gave to each of the boys a tiny bouquet for them to give to us, their respective mothers. Laugh.
