Monday, January 2, 2017

Munich - Fussen - Garmisch (Zugspitze)

Cellphone service in Germany:

Tried to buy a sim card but apparently my phone was still locked with Sprint.

Options for Cell-phone service are:
Vodafone all Europe plan - 40 Euro (with 4GB internet included); Or 35 Euro with 2GB Internet;
Vodafone Germany plan (much cheaper) - from 15 Euro for 1 GB Internet.

  

Car Rental in Munich 

Rented a car in Munich from Hauptbahnhof (main train station) where they had several options - Hertz, Europcar, Avis, Budget. We ran into problems with Budget and their poor customer service (reserved the car online but when arrived to pick it up she said they have no cars. Very not German I should say). So we had to rent a car for X2 the price from Europcar.  

Make sure you have GPS service.

Munich to Fussen Trip - recommended Restaurant!

On the way to Fussen we stopped by for dinner at little town of Marktoberdorf where we found a restaurant named Gasthof Burger. But don't let the name deceive you. It was the best German restaurant we've been to during this trip. And we only went to German ones during this trip.

 
It was about 1.50hr drive from Munich to Fussen.

Hotel in Fussen:

Jacob Hotel - nice little place with good buffet breakfast and probably morning coffee that made just right.

Address: Schwärzerweg 6, 87629 Füssen, Germany
Phone: +49 8362 91320

Neuschwanstein castle:

From there we drove to the "Disney prototype" Neuschwanstein Castle. We parked as close as we could (6 Euro flat rate).
There are two ways to get to the castle which is located on a high mountain. One is on the horse carriage (6 Euro per person) and another is on the large bus (1 Euro). We took the horse uphill and bus downhill.

I should say a third way is to walk but that's just not happened with minus C temperatures and its also A VERY LONG WALK uphill. There are other places to walk around so I'd save your efforts for other times.

Tickets to Neuschwanstein castle:
While everybody will tell you that you can only get them downhill - there is also an Information desk inside the castle where you can buy tickets to get inside of the castle. The thing is that you need a tour guide to get in and each group is limited. So we could not get inside. However walking around the castle is free and still worth going. Lots of photo ops.

You also may reserve the tickets to Neuschwanstein online in advance but only 3 days before the tour date.

 

Drive from Fussen to Garmisch: