在前往德國的途中，負責‘導航’的我，曾經在福森一地走錯路，當時，忙著找路的我，嘴裡頭福森福森地念著，總覺得這個地名好耳熟，只是怎麼都想不起來到底在哪裡聽過，也就沒放在心上。
On the way to Germany, I was in charge of "navigation". We kind of mistook the direction around Fussen. At that moment, I was too busy looking for the correct way. Even though the name "Fussen" sounded familiar, I just couldn't remember when I've heard of it before.
友人家裡客廳的牆上，貼著一張大大的德國地圖。在海德堡的某個晚上，大家夥兒分享電腦裡的存檔照片，聊著這幾年來的旅行，原來，他們兩人早已趁著在德國的這段時間，把能玩的該玩的地方都走遍了！話題中，「福森」這個地名又跑了出來。相談之下我才知道，原來這就是大名鼎鼎‘新天鵝堡’的所在地。既然在回義大利的路上還會再經過一遍，我們於是決定，回程要抽空拜訪這個美麗的山中城堡。
On the wall of our friend's house, there's a detailed map of Germany. In one of the evening when we're sharing the photos saved in our computer and talked about the trips that we've done in the past years, I discovered that they have been to most of the famous places in Germany in two years. During our talk, the name "Fussen" appeared again. I was told that it is the place where "Neuschweistein" is situated. Since we'll anyway pass by the town again, we decided to pay a visit to this beautiful castle among the hills.
抵達福森已經是下午一點多的事。迫不及待的兩人，連吃飯的時間都想要省下，車一停好，連忙順著指標找到了購票處。一問之下，原來參觀只能以團體導覽的方式進行，我們也只好按照規定，選了英文導覽的團體參觀。票買完以後看看時間，大概還有一個多小時的空檔，隨便找了點東西果腹以後，便開始了大約半小時的上坡行。
It's early afternoon when we arrived Fussen. We're so eager to go see the castle that we even thought of skipping our lunch. Once we parked our car, we followed the indication to the ticket office. However, the visits can only be done in groups, and we had to choose between English or German language. We chose the English group that will be starting in an hour. Since we still had some time, we ate some simple snacks and then started to walk uphill to the main entrance of the castle.
從購票處到新天鵝堡的交通方式，可以選擇步行、巴士或馬車。為了要好好欣賞沿路風光，即使我當天的服裝並不怎麼運動風，還是應著頭皮踩著跟有點高的靴子上陣。
From the ticket office to the main entrance, visitors can choose to walk, to take a bus or horse carriage. In order to enjoy the nice view of the landscape, we chose to walk even I wasn't prepared to do so... I was wearing high heel boots that day.
四月的福森，還有著陣陣寒意。事實上，我們在德國的這個星期，天氣並不好，前幾天下著雨，讓我連出門的情緒都沒有，硬是在友人家中睡了三天，中間穿插著一點出門逛櫥窗的樂趣。眾人一起出遊的週末，天氣冷到大家都把厚外套穿了起來，白天氣溫總在四到七度間打轉，晚上也降到零度，讓我在山丘上看夜景時直打哆嗦。回義大利的當天，其實我並沒有想太多，因為睡眠不足，人還沒醒過來就已經上了車，一直到車行經過司圖佳特，才猛然想起，我把大外套留在友人家裡了！為了趕路，我們並沒有折回去拿外套，心想反正春天嘛~~~應該用不著了。等車子越來越接近德奧邊境，窗外的景色越來越有冬意，我才開始擔心了起來…這幾天感情是有下雪，記得前往海德堡的途中，並沒有看到那麼多雪呢！到了福森，外頭只有四度！還好幾年下來，我已經漸漸習慣了義大利的天氣，長袖T恤外加上一件保暖的fleece，再把米奇身上的風衣搶來穿，竟也就這麼在四度天的戶外走動了起來。米奇一如往常，穿著他的短袖T恤趴趴走，直嚷著「這樣的天氣好舒服啊！」我和路人們，則是在旁邊看著冷，膽戰心驚。
It is somewhat chilly in April. In fact, during the whole week the weather wasn't that good. It was raining for a couple days that I didn't feel like going out at all and slept at our friend's place for three days with some window shopping fun in the middle. The weekend when we finally could go out together, it was so cold that we all picked up the heaviest things we've got because the temperature was around 4 to 7 degrees. It even went down to zero degree in the night and I was freezing to death when we're in one of the hills around Heidelberg for the night view. The day we went back to Italy, I was forced to get up early and wasn't really awake. When we passed by Stuggart I finally remembered that I've forgotten my coat in Heidelberg!! We're already a bit in delay so we didn't go back to pick it up. I thought "it's spring anyway! I probably won't need it." When we gradually approached the Germany-Austria boarder, the scenery outside the window started to get "wintery"! I started to worry... It should have snowed these days... I didn't seem to see any snow on the way to Heidelberg! When we arrived Fussen, it was four degrees outside... The only "protections" I've got were a long-sleeve t-shirt and a fleece. I also "stole" Michele's wind stopper. As usual, Michele was walking around happily with a short sleeve t-shirt, saying "how nice the temperature is"... the more he said so, the colder I felt...
Neuschwanstein
