May 22, 2022
Day 40: Fussen to Wieskirche & back
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When we rode the Elbe dike, with a wide open view and may sheep to keep us company, I thought cycling couldn't get any better. And when we came up the Rhine in the vine lands by Mainz, I thought the same. Then I waxed poetic about the joys of the Bodensee, until going up into the mountains, alm, and brown cows of Heidi land. So if I now say today was the best, you may be skeptical, or like someone has already commented, just wait for the Salzkammergut, and then there is the Drau, and the Brenner Pass. Yeah ok, but today was the best!
To begin with, we had mostly sun and good coolish cycling temperature, while still being in shirt sleeves. We left our hostel after a good night's sleep, and having had no one bug us or disturb our bikes. Down our street we had a glance at Fussen, and then we were off.
Our objective for today was to visit the Wies Kirche, and then also to swing by Neuschwanstein. I had misunderstood the Wies Kirche, thinking of it as the Weisse Kirche, which would mean white church. And while the church is indeed white, that is not the source of its name. Rather, it is located in the town of Wies. There is more than one town of Wies in this area, so we had to watch out. The one we wanted is 25 km north east of Fussen. As it happens, our route out of here (tomorrow) goes right by it, so it is 25 km we are going to end up seeing three times.
The first town on this route is Schwangau, which shares with Fussen the tourism fame of being right by the two fairy tale castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. We might as well get the background on these now:
"Hohenschwangau Castle was mentioned the first time in records of the 12th century.
Until the 16th century its owners were the knights of Schwangau. During the following time it changed hands a couple of times and was partially destroyed during different wars.
In 1832 the later King Maximilian II., father of King Ludwig II., acquired the ruin and had the castle rebuilt according to original plans. After its completion it used to be the summer and hunting residence of the Bavarian royal family. In his whole life, the famous Bavarian King Ludwig II. spent a few weeks each summer in Hohenschwangau."
But the big story here is Neuschwanstein. Ludwig thought his father's castle was boring. So in time he built the new one. But Ludwig had a comic book fan like fascination with mythical German knights and heros, and he had the entire interior decorated with comic book style painting of them. Weird, and one hell of an enduring tourist attraction. It is also said that Walk Disney modelled his Sleeping Beauty Castle on this one.
Back to Schwangau, unlike at Heididorf, the town does not actually play on the Ludwig story. Rather it is an authentic Bavarian town, with its own style.
One of the big attractions for us, just outside of Schwangau, was a ReWe grocery store, that was open despite this being Sunday. ReWe, by the way, is pronounced reh veh, and we have taken to calling it that, abandoning Ree Wee!
Neuschwanstein is visible from the ReWe gas bar. So here is a shot of the castle you are not going to see on a postcard:
Dad's castle is also visible from this spot. Here is a long shot of it.
Standing all alone in a field down from the gas station is a quite nice church, called St. Colomannus. "The baroque Colomanskirche is located near Schwangau in Bavaria . It was created in its current form in the 17th century on a previous building that was built in honor of Saint Koloman . The Irish pilgrim is said to have rested here in the summer of 1012 on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land . Due to its location at the foot of the Schwangau mountains and its proximity to the world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle , the church is one of the most famous sights in Bavaria."
Maybe because today is Sunday, the church was closed (??) But we expect the interior is beautiful.
The events so far are going on in the context of the astoundingly beautiful green wonderland of the hills and meadows, not to mention the separate and well paved cycle paths. This background underlies the whole day, and reinforces the impact of the things we came to see and experience. And oh, there are brown cows absolutely everywhere!
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Sebastian Kneipp lived in the 1800's and was one of the forefathers of naturopathic medicine. One of his things was hydrotherapy - using water of various temperatures and pressures. Today we sometimes come across "Kneipp sites", which offer a chance to walk in very cold water. Dodie has actually spotted a Kneipp radweg linking such sites. We came upon one before the town of Buching, and I gave it a try. Oh, the pain! But I think my feet felt good afterward.
The first hint of some of the major fun to come today came as a woman wearing a dirndl swept past us on a bike. Dirndl is a unique Bavarian dress, and dirndl as a cycling costume seemed very unusual. So I stepped on the pedals and ran her down, but at that moment being too shy to stop, and interrogate her, just snapped this shot:
As it happened, this dirndl wearer was not unique at all, not by a long shot! When we entered the town of Buching, we spotted some activity over to one side. It seemed to involve pop up tents, parked cars, and people, so we went over to see what was going on. It was just the beginning of a community event with an antique tractor parade, traditional music and dress, and a beer and food garden. And people in dirndls, and lederhosen, were everywhere! The band was assembling just then, and they looked great.
I went over and approached three young women, in dirndl and with clarinets, and began with the not so often used pick up line "You all look young enough to speak some English, can you tell me what is going on here?". Two of the three tried to melt into the grass, but the third told me that the music would begin in ten minutes, and that there would be a tractor parade at 2. It's an annual and not a routine event.
The large number of people in traditional dress established that the culture being expressed is not just the preserve of musicians or actors or such, but is a genuine thing for everyone. And the large number of tractors illustrates the importance of agriculture in the community. The fact that the old ones were all in working order also says something of the character of the people. Most importantly, combined, all these pieces were a natural expression of the place, not put on for tourists or anyone else, but just happening. For us, it was serendipity and so great!
Great as it was for us, we could only think of Ken Graham, of Ken and Tricia. They have structured whole blogs around searching for antique tractors in Europe, e.g. Hunting down Ancient Tractors between Dusseldorf and Warsaw, and The Tractors between London and Lisbon. So Ken and Tricia, at the risk of boring some others, here are too many tractor photos (and we have more!).
And for fans of traditional dress, here are too many photos of that:
We could easily have hung around all day, eating wurst and listening to the music, but of course we had places to go. So we regretfully headed out. But it wasn't for long. Despite the seemingly huge number of musicians and traditionally dressed people and tractors in Buching, in nearby Bayernniederhofen we ran into it all over again. Whereas in Buching the action seemed to be at some sort of fairground, here people appeared to have just gathered in a random suburban type street. But there was again no shortage of musicians, or tractors!
With both of these festivals, and with one other "festival" of escaped cows, I captured some of the sound and action on videos. I hope to have these at the end of this page. I think they are super!
Despite the amount of fun so far, we arrived at Wies with lots of time to fully experience the church and also the surroundings. We must admit that sometimes not always pressing to just get somewhere, our usual M.O., has advantages.
On this Sunday, we were not the only ones at Wies with time to just contemplate. Across from the church was a well attended biergarten, and there were souvenir stands about. People were just strolling in the sun as well as of course going into the church. We locked our bikes by a railing, and I felt that they too could enjoy the casual ambiance.
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Inside the church, you have to be impressed by the extent and quality of the artistry. Whether religious or not, every visitor is awestruck and silent when looking at it.
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According to the Wieskirche website
"People from all over the world come to the Wies. Many search for sense in their life and orientation. This church has the power, by its artistic expression and spiritual message, to give them an answer." Ok, but, no. Check the very bottom of this page for what gave Meaning to our Lives today.
As in many churches, there are thank you notes, usually to saints, for services or miracles rendered. I like the painting depicting action around the church steeple. I often look at steeple shapes, wondering which work best for sending messages to God, and I had already commented to Dodie that this one looked too short to be of much use. But she pointed out that the high mountain location has got to give it a boost.
In time we left the church and the peaceful surroundings and headed back (up and ) down. We essentially retraced our route, but toward the end diverted a little closer to the castles. Retracing the route meant passing by the musical/tractor gatherings again. In the case of the "second" one, we found people leaving and working on dismantling benches. But at Buching we were amazed to find that the thing had increased in size by ten fold! Now there were hundreds, many hundreds, of tractors, and crowds of people, many in traditional dress. We threaded our way through, sometimes pausing with the other cyclists, who are everywhere, until a way would be clear.
Not only did we find meadows and cyclists and tractors and cold water and musicians etc. today, but also many hang gliders. They look so graceful descending from high above.
Covid has had a dampening effect on Neuschwanstein. Now you can only visit for a 30 minute pre booked limited attendance guided tour, with full masking. We cycled to the base of the hill and were not even sure we would be allowed to cycle up, should we have been that brave. The bridge above, one that I was sure would collapse when I joined 50 other tourists on it in 2014, is under repair. But clearly there is still a way up, if not in. We settled for some photos from below.
Closing in on the castle:
Videos for more of today's fun!
What gave Meaning to Life today? Serendipity, and --->
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 2,342 km (1,454 miles)
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Regards Ken
PS When we were there I spent a lot of time waiting. If we had been on your ride today it would have stalled and probably ended at the tractor parade 😊
Tricia
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The blow torch is used the make a hot spot on the cylinder to vapourish the oil as there is no spark plug. Then the steering wheel is taken off to use as a crack handle. Lots of excitement and that wonderful two stroke sound
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