Harrison's European Vacation: Fussen, Germany to Wiesen, Switzerland, Sunday, June 27th

Leaving Fussen, I would be remiss not to comment more on the parking garage there. We had to part in the garage at Hotel Sonne, and it was, shall we say, a little tight. Every time we had to leave or enter our parking spot, it was an ordeal that involved me gritting my teeth and being fearful of scraping our rented car, Jim getting frustrated at me for being so tense and making horrible faces every time he came close to the posts he had to park between in the garage, Maddie laughing at both of us and McIntyre being oblivious to the whole situation. Each parking adventure involved multiple 3-point-road turns, for lack of a better term, but by the day we left we thought we had it licked.

Jim got out of the parking space very easily with nary a scratch on the car. But in our zeal to document it all for posterity, we spent too much time videotaping and taking photos, while in the meantime the door to exit the garage apparently timed out and closed. We told Maddie to get out of the car and go jump around in front of what we thought might be the trigger mechanism to open the garage door again, but to no avail. So, after acing his exit from the world’s tightest parking space, poor Jim had to go down the world’s tightest parking ramp. Backward. It was a fitting end to our struggle with that parking garage and just one more time that we were grateful that we didn’t rent a larger car.

Oh sure the parking spot looks real big in this picture!

So, on our departure from Fussen we stopped at Lech Falls, which is a clearly manmade waterfall, I'm guessing part of a water flow control system between the Lech River and the lakes around Fussen.

Lech Falls, Fussen Germany

Leaving Fussen we were headed to Lake Como in Italy, but because it’s a long drive we wanted to break it up a bit. Originally, we planned to spend the night in Chur, but on our friend Mark’s recommendation, we went a different route which was to take us to Saint Moritz. Hotels there were rather expensive, so we picked a different place called Wiesen, which was less expensive. So after leaving Fussen we drove through Austria, stopping along the way at a rest stop for an amazing view of the Zugspitz, the highest mountain in Germany. This was our only stop in Austria. Maddie was determined to get a snow globe from every country we’ve visited, but alas the selection at this rest stop was dismal at best, so her hopes for an Austrian snow globe were dashed.

Maddie and Mac in Austria, with the Zugspitz in the background.

Old motorcycle that was at the rest stop in Austria

Onward we drove toward Wiesen, which was definitely the scenic route. Along the way we came across many, many people riding bicycles on the mountain roads. They all had numbers and were clearly participating in some sort of race. We eventually drove under a banner, I believe in Davos, Switzerland, that appeared to be for a 24-hour bicycle race, so I think that’s what all the bicyclists we saw were participating in. Luckily for us, they were part of the oncoming traffic for us, so although it was a little hairy sharing the winding mountain roads with them, we didn’t have to worry so much about passing them safely.

Biker going up the mountain

Eventually we made the turn toward Davos and ascended a huge mountain pass; Fluelapass was the name I think. We were above the tree line and there was snow here and there, so we stopped at a “river” (snow melt) tumbling down the mountainside for a photo op. There were patches of snow, which thrilled the children, who proceeded to have a snowball fight. Shortly after that we reached the top of the pass, where there was a little way station and a pond/lake that was still partially frozen. Bear in mind, we were there in late June. This was occasion for more snowball fighting.

Snow in June

Snowball fight gone wrong

Maddie and Mac

We finally descended the pass and drove through Davos, a much larger town than we expected. We continued on another 20 minutes or so to Wiesen, which is a small village that presumably caters to skiers in the winter. Our hotel there, with the decidedly American name, “Sun Ranch,” was at the top of the town and was largely wonderful. The view was spectacular and our room was large with a lovely balcony and the same spectacular view.

Although the hotel was slightly worn around the edges the only drawback was our bathroom, which was so small that when I bent over the sink to wash my face, my butt hit the wall. No matter, the view made up for it. This hotel also had a cute, if a little ramshackle, playground that kept McIntyre quite entertained. Maddie was not as fond of it as Mac was, most likely because she brushed up against a plant that gave her a bumpy and itchy rash. (She just added that part to the blog; apparently this was pretty significant to her. It did happen almost immediately after she brushed up against the plant.) But the playground also had that same gorgeous view. We were sorry to leave this place. BTW, did I mention the view?!?!