Our next stop was the small village of Wies, where we planned to visit Wieskirche. We put Wies into the GPS and started driving. After about 15 minutes, we noticed something that looked like a minus sign in a circle on the nav system in the center of the road. That minus sign was a border. Why were we headed into Austria? Apparently, there’s more than one Wies in Bavaria, and we were being routed through Ruette, Austria and back into Germany to get to one of the other ones. Just across the border in Austria, we discontinued the guidance and asked the nav system to take us to Rottenbuch, a town close to Wies. Later we realized that the nav system would not take us to the Wies we wanted, but it would let us input Wieskirche was a point of interest. So after an unintended visit to Austria, we ended up at Wieskirche around 5:45 p.m. I had read that this church was one of the best examples of Rococo architecture in Germany, and I was fascinated by the fact that a church like this was out in the middle of nowhere. It was worth the visit, even with the detour through another country!
(I tried to insert a picture of Wieskirche's interior, but it didn't work. Here is a
link.)
Finally, it was time to drive to Fussen, the town where we are spending the next two nights. The drive was pretty uneventful, but about 12 km outside of Fussen, we had to take a detour due to road work. This took us about 6 km out of the way, but we got to travel along the shores of Forggensee. We got into Fussen, found our hotel, and checked in. The Hotel Sonne was one of the hotels in Fussen that was recommended by Rick Steeves and other guidebooks. Its location in the center of Fussen was a reason to choose it, and the last-minute rate of €109 per night including breakfast, parking, and wired internet was pretty attractive too! Although I am reluctant to stay somewhere I can’t use status and get points, we are happy with the Sonne so far!
After a visit to a local market to get water (and a few Ritter Sports!) and dinner at a nearby Doner café, we came back to the room and relaxed. It’s almost time for bed, and we look forward to exploring Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau tomorrow.