"I'm sittin' in the railway station, Got a ticket for my destination..." Fussen ~ September 24th

The advantage of taking trains everywhere on trips is that you get to see the landscape around you as it changes....and in this case, it was an amazing landscape indeed. The ride from Stuttgart to Fussen took all afternoon, but I forgot the length and boring-ness of it all, when we started to move into the farmlands of south-east Germany. The hills made me think of the Berkshires but the grass! the grass was so much greener than anything I have ever seen. The fields epitomize the idea of fertile soil. Even this late in the month, the grass is as emerald green as the the best-watered lawn you would find in summer season. And the green flows from mile to mile across the hills. And there are cows. Lots of cows. All over. But hey, if I was a cow, I'd guess want to live and graze in that part of Germany too!

We arrived in Fussen late in the evening, and since we hadn't booked a room in advance, our first item of adgenda was to find a place for the night. So......that turned into interesting experience. As we quickly found out, Fussen is a huge tourist town so it was virtually impossible to find a hotel with room for three people that costs less than 100 euros a night. We hotel-hopped from about an hour or so before one nice receptionist told us about an information center nearby where we could look up & call places. After about 4 calls, we headed off excitedly in the direction of a guesthouse that had one empty room. We forgot to remember the name of it and didn't have a map, which meant we basically went off of memory as far as location went. We walked around in circles, then went back to the information board, then walked some more up and down the same street before we found the guesthouse, 10 minutes before the owner was going to close up for the night. It was fantastic, because 1.) they had three beds 2.) it cost less than 30 euros per night per person 3.) the beds were comfy 4.) the towels looked and smelled clean, which is important after hostel experiences in that regard 5.) they had an awesome free breakfast.

Basically, we were very happy as we went off to search for dinner around town (yes, we were eating dinner at 9 pm!) We three all had local specialties for our dinner and beer selection before wandering the city, in search of a gelato place. We discover new flavors in every city we visit, and this place was no exception. Jon Larson and I both got the rum flavor and wow - it tastes sooo amazing with the mocha flavor. Yum "Mehr Eis, bitte" more ice cream please....I never tire of gelato :-) A great way to end a day.

~E.