Bucket List

After the Bisori wedding, Jim and I decided to head up north to Fussen to climb up to the Tegelberg which is approximately 1800 meters high. Jim had this in mind three years ago when we visited Fussen and couldn’t get out of his head, so here we go…

The train ride from Florence, Italy to Innsbruck, Austria was a gruesome eight hour long ride. We fed ourselves a good Italian pizza meal and walked up the Giatto’s tower (414 steps for 6 euros) before we headed back to the train station in Florence. This is our second time in Florence and coming back here was strangely familiar to both of us. Florence was just as busy as the last time we visited, the food was as good as we remembered, the view from top of the Giatto’s tower was just as breath-taking as we have captured in our camera from the last trip. We stopped in Florence only briefly this time and we were on our train to Innsbruck, Austria.

As we started heading towards the border of Italy, the landscape changed from hilly Tuscany cities to little villages next to mountains with steep rocky cliffs. The closer we got to Austria, the higher the train had to climb, the colder we got. I was excited to visit Innsbruck because last time, we only had time to see the Innsbruck train station! This year, we’ll at least have one evening and a short morning to see Innsbruck! We stayed at Hotel Maximiliar by old town Innsbruck this time. Our walk to old town Innsbruck was just around the corner from the hotel. Buildings in the old town were painted in bright colors. They were not painted in single color but many of them were etched with extremely artistic murals outside of the buildings. Many buildings also have sculptures attached to the windows, roof, outside walls, and one of the main tourist attractions was the building with a golden copper roof. (The Golden Roof) Innsbruck must be a fun place to visit; it will have to go on my long want-to-travel-to list for next time.

Speaking of lists, we finally arrived in Fussen, Germany to complete one of Jim’s items on his buck list after a 2.5 hours train and bus ride from Innsbruck, Austria the next morning. Jim and I decided to see Neuschwanstein castle again, so we rode in a horse carriage with 10 others to see this fairytale castle up in the mountains. The ride up the hill started out very romantic with an Australian couple sitting next to us in the front row right behind the horses until one of the horses starting tooting. Yup, the girl horse kept farting and the four of us kept laughing until the horse finally stopped and did her thing.... I know this is kind of disgusting, but it was just too funny. Imagine the couples wanting to make this a romantic ride so horses were hired instead of buses, and there you are, sitting behind the tooting horse that pooped right in front of you. Talk about close and personal!

During the tour of Neuschwanstein, we found out that there was a concert every year open to the public at the concert hall of the castle at this time of the year. So guess what we did? We went back up to the Castle (this time by bus) and waited for two tickets out of the 480 seats that might become available last minute. We waited in the ticket office with no heat for an hour, and Germans were true to their heritage, out of the 480 guests, every single one of them showed up! The German volunteers at the concert pitied us and gave us a ride back down the mountain so we did not have to walk back through the forest in the cold at night! So our trip to Fussen to complete one of Jim’s items on his bucket list added something new for me! I am coming back to Fussen to enjoy a concert in the mad King’s Castle!

Jim was such a good sport to wait with me in the cold for a concert tickets so I decided that I was going to complete his goal of 1800 meter climb up on the Telgelberg with him. This was the most satisfying bad decision I have ever made…

After we ascended for ten minutes, we saw a sign to Telgelberg that it was going to take us three hours. I thought to myself, shall I keep climbing or shall I turn around to wait for Jim at a local café or bar? I decided to keep going because I have made up my mind the night before that I was going to be by his side when he checks off his list! So we kept going… Just so you know, this was not just a hike, this was climbing and part of the trail rock-climbing. I did not train for the hike - I was just going to wing it! I had another decision to make after what it seems was one hour later, we reached another sign which indicated that the Telgelberg was another 2.5 hours away. At that point, I was ready to give up and start heading down the hill, but I am glad that I stuck with it. It was about two hours and fifteen minutes later that we hit the half way house. We sat by the heater, ordered some water and juice, got some rest, and head back out onto the path. While we were in the half-way house, you know what I was thinking right? We were only half way and it has taken me 2 hours and 15 minutes and my legs were sore and achy, I really wanted to turn back. By this time, it was not “I want to by Jim when he checks off this trip” that stopped me from turning back, it was “I want to head back but I don’t want to go back alone” and “he will have to do this another time which I really don’t want to be part of” that kept me going…

Fortunately, after our break, adrenaline finally kicked in and the ascending had become easier. We competed with other climbers in perfect climbing gear but surprisingly, the next half of our trip only took us one hour to complete even though the terrain has become rockier and more difficult to climb up. It was not until we had arrived at the top of the mountain and finished enjoying our hot soup and cold beer that the climbers with climbing gear made it up to the Tegelberghaus (dinner / bar at top of Tegelberg). Jim and I were sweaty and tired, but totally amazed and satisfied to have beaten the climbers with the right gear! Heck, not only that we didn’t have any climbing gear, I had my LV purse (which some climbers laughed and pointed at when they were descending down the mountain), and we still beat the “professionals”! Where there is a will, there is a way!

While we were sitting at the haus warming ourselves up, a biker asked to join our table, we welcomed him and started talking. He took a similar route up the mountain with his bike and it was a 1.5 hour ride for him to go up the mountain. We asked him whether this was his first time up because he was extremely sweaty in his biking outfit, he said “no, I do this every week”. Jim and I looked at each other and I secretly said to myself, “every week? I don’t even want this hike to be on my bucket list, let alone doing this every week!” I couldn’t believe it. The biker changed into some dry clothes, had a cup of tea, chatted with us and the owner a bit, and got his gear ready again. I asked him, “Are you riding down the mountain?” He replied “of course, it only takes 45 minutes, it is easier”. I stared at him in disbelief as he walked out of the haus. I thought Jim was crazy to put this hike on his bucket this, this biker must be very mad to do this every weekend!!! No wonder this biker is stick thin…

After we soaked up our success and achievement, we bought the gondola tickets to ride down the mountain – there was no way I am walking down that mountain! The gondola that we were on started descending from the clouds and fog into the clearing. We could see the path that we took, Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein, then the field and the city of Schwangau… The view was beautiful but we were both exhausted. I still can’t believe we climbed up 1881 meters in 3 hours and 15 minutes, but Jim is ecstatic that climbing Tegelberg is off of his bucket list.

We trained to Munich after our climb and we didn’t even make it to our next bucket list destination – Oktoberfest, tonight. We are both beyond exhausted, but tomorrow, we’ll conquer the infamous Oktoberfest! Oktoberfest, here we come, we just need one good night sleep then we’ll be ready!