BAVARIAN WEEKED ROAD-TRIP
RIX-FMM
18.11.2023: We’ll make efficient use of the national holiday long weekend by heading out on a three-day mini trip. The plan is to take the short version of a route through southern Germany and eastern Switzerland. This time we’re traveling as a group of four — Madara and I, together with my brother Edgars and his wife Santa.
To squeeze the maximum out of these few days, we start early with a Ryanair flight to emmingen, a small Bavarian city located west of Munich. It’s not a major destination on its own, but it serves
perfectly as a convenient gateway to the region. Waiting for us there will be a rental car, which will take us the rest of the way as we continue deeper into the Alps.
MEMMINGEN, GERMANY
18.11.2023: We land at Memmingen Airport almost half an hour earlier than scheduled, but unfortunately that doesn’t give us any real advantage. The rental office only opens at 8:00, so we still have to wander around the airport for about 30 minutes. To be fair, wandering might be an exaggeration — you can walk diagonally across the entire terminal in about two minutes, so it quickly turns into slightly pointless waiting. When the rental office finally opens, we discover that our reserved Audi isn’t ready, so instead we receive a two-month-old BMW 3 Series. Honestly, that might be the most appropriate car possible for Bavarian roads, right?
The first mission in the city is obvious — find breakfast. Right in the middle of the old town we settle into a small, cozy café called Kultbohne Store Café. For quite generous breakfasts for all four of us, we pay €50 — a very reasonable start to the day. After refueling, we take a short walk through Memmingen’s old town. It’s a charming Bavarian town, full of colorful houses in the region’s very distinctive architectural style. In the central square — Marktplatz — a market is taking place. It doesn’t appear to be a Christmas market yet, more like a regular weekly market, mostly focused on food products. And judging by the number of stalls… sausages clearly dominate the menu.
VADUZ, LIECHTENSTEIN
18.11.2023: After the morning walk, it’s time to move on. Next stop: a new country on our list —
Liechtenstein. For me, this one is a milestone — country number thirty. We drive straight toward the residence of the Liechtenstein royal family — Vaduz Castle. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to go inside, but we manage to drive up the very narrow road all the way to the castle area.
A short walk around the castle grounds brings us to a viewing platform, where we stop to take photos. From here you can overlook the entire city, with the snow-covered peaks of the Alps rising in the background.
Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, has fewer than 6,000 residents. It’s also a good starting point for longer hiking routes into the mountains — although those are clearly better suited for summer conditions. Even so, we do spot a few determined hikers. Next we head down to explore the city center.
One of the first stops is the Liechtenstein Postal Museum, where we send a postcard to Grandma in Talsi. While we’re there, we also get Liechtenstein passport stamps as a souvenir of the visit. It costs 3 Swiss francs per stamp, but at this point … why not? After that, we take a walk along the main pedestrian street — Städtle. In the central square near the Rathaus, there’s a small outdoor ice rink for children, while parents warm themselves nearby with cups of mulled wine. Outside the rink area, however, the streets feel rather quiet, and several restaurants appear to be
closed.
It’s clearly off-season, though that doesn’t really bother us. Still, it would be nice if at least one restaurant were open so we could grab dinner. In the end, we decide to survive for now on a few snack bars and sweets, saving proper dinner for our overnight destination — Bad Ragaz, Switzerland.
BURG GUTENBERG, LIECHTENSTEIN
18.11.2023: On the way, we make one more quick pit stop in southern Liechtenstein, in the town of Balzers, near Gutenberg Castle. We follow the small path up the hill toward the castle, take a
moment to breathe in the fresh Alpine air, snap a few photos, and simply enjoy the scenery. Beautiful place. Gutenberg Castle was originally built in the 12th century, when the hilltop served as the site of a medieval church and cemetery. Later in that century, several fortification upgrades
were added — most notably the construction of the main tower, which raised the height of the original structure.
Eventually the tower was equipped with merlons, the classic defensive battlements used for shooting and observation. Historically, the castle played an important role in guarding the
border between Habsburg-controlled territories and the independent Swiss cantons nearby.
Unlike Vaduz Castle, this one is open to the public. The castle grounds can be explored freely at any time. Inside there is also a museum, though it happens to be closed today. To be honest, we probably wouldn’t have gone inside anyway. At this point the main goal is to reach today’s final destination — Bad Ragaz — while there’s still daylight left.
BAD RAGAZ, SWITZERLAND
18.11.2023: We check in at tonight’s hotel — Schloss Hotel Ragaz. Our accommodation is a bungalow-style house for four people, costing €310 for the night with breakfast included. The place is cozy and perfectly adequate for one to three nights with four people. There’s no kitchen, only a very small fridge and a kettle. Since we’re staying just one night, that doesn’t cause any inconvenience.
Considering we woke up today at 3:30 AM, I strongly vote for a power nap before heading into town to search for dinner. In the end, I’m the only one who manages to execute this plan properly. After about an hour of sleep, I’m fully recharged and ready for round two of the day.
For dinner we head to The Cheeky Mermaid Pub, about 15 minutes away, which stood out during our Google review research as having the best price-to-performance ratio in the area. Good choice. The pub is lively, service is quick, and the food is simple but tasty. For dinner and drinks, the four of us pay 134 Swiss francs, which works out to roughly €35 per person — quite reasonable by Swiss standards. On the way back we take a short walk around the town, but in the darkness there isn’t much to see. On top of that, it starts raining quite heavily, so we call it a night and head back to the bungalow.
Unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like tomorrow’s planned route over the Flüela Pass might be closed due to the bad weather. If that’s the case, we’ll have to either drive around via Austria or use the car-train service. Hopefully things improve overnight — but just in case, tonight I’ll need to prepare a Plan B for tomorrow’s route.
VEREINATUNNEL AUTOVERLAD, SWITZERLAND
19.11.2023: Today the weather is noticeably worse. Our originally planned route is no longer possible because the Flüela Pass is closed due to bad weather conditions. As an alternative, we
decide to use the Vereina car train — Vereina Autoverlad. The journey takes about 18 minutes and costs 34 Swiss francs per car. The train travels through the 19 km long Vereina Tunnel, which
is the longest railway tunnel in Switzerland, cutting directly through the mountain range and connecting the regions of Klosters-Serneus and Susch.
It’s quite an interesting experience. I had never used a car transport train like this before.
The wagon is only slightly wider than the car itself, so you have to drive on carefully and with some feeling if you want to avoid leaving your side mirrors behind. The locals, however, seem to approach it with much more confidence — driving straight in without even touching the brake pedal. Apparently around 450,000 cars are transported through this tunnel every year, which means that on average about 1,200 vehicles pass through daily. Pretty impressive.
TARASP, SWITZERLAND
19.11.2023: Our next stop is Tarasp Castle (Schloss Tarasp) — a small detour from today’s main route. To reach the town, we cross the Vulpera Innbrücke, an impressive bridge stretching across a deep Alpine valley. The approach to the castle itself follows a narrow and steep serpentine road, and at this moment I’m very happy with our choice of car. The BMW climbs the mountain effortlessly. Had we rented some tiny Fiat or Fiesta, we might have ended up pushing it uphill ourselves.
The castle itself isn’t accessible right now. Entry is only possible once per day at a specific time with prior reservation, so we’ll have to admire it from the outside. No problem though.
We take a short walk through the small but very picturesque village of Tarasp, surrounded by the snow-covered Alpine valley, enjoy the views for a moment, and then continue on our way.
GRAUN IM VINSCHGAU / CURON VENOSTA, ITALY
19.11.2023: A quick stop to tick off country number five of the trip. We arrive at Lake Resia (Reschensee), where an unusual sight immediately catches the eye — a church tower rising straight out of the lake. The rest of the church lies submerged beneath the water.
I don’t actually know the full story behind why it ended up this way, but it certainly looks fascinating. Something to Google later when we’re back home. This also becomes our lunch stop.
Just 50 meters after crossing the Austrian–Italian border, there are immediately two pizzerias waiting on the Italian side. We choose one of them and sit down for lunch. Overall, the pizzas are very good. The only slight problem is my own decision-making. Somehow I manage to order a pizza with sardines, which turns out not to be the greatest choice considering I’m not exactly a big fan of fish. Not exactly a moment of culinary triumph. Fortunately, some pizza trading with the others solves the situation, and in the end everyone is well fed and ready to continue the
journey.
ALTFINSTERMÜNZ, AUSTRIA
19.11.2023: After a short drive — and another border crossing — we stop at Altfinstermünz, where a 20-minute walk leads us down to an interesting historic fortification built into the cliffs above the Inn River, right on the Swiss–Austrian border. The fortress lies in the Tyrolean Nauders region, at the foot of the Finstermünz pass, where the old road from the Reschen Pass once continued toward Pfunds and Landeck. This route was actively used until 1854, before modern roads replaced it.
Moments like this also make me realize how spoiled we Europeans are when it comes to border
crossings. You really only notice it when traveling outside Europe, where every border can involve
stricter or sometimes completely unpredictable checks.
Today alone we have already crossed borders four times, and the day is only halfway through.
While walking down the mountain trail, I manage to slip and slightly strain the muscle in my right
thigh. Not the most elegant moment. Nothing serious, but now I’m walking with a bit of a half-limp. Fortunately, there isn’t much walking planned for the rest of the day, so hopefully it will recover by tomorrow.
After crossing the river, we briefly find ourselves back in Switzerland, where hiking trails continue
in both directions — border crossing number five for today. We walk a short distance along one of the trails, reaching a tunnel carved through the rock, with a waterfall cascading down above it. The path continues much farther into the mountains, but that’s not part of today’s plan.
On the way back we suddenly hear the sound of rocks collapsing somewhere in the distance. Even though we are clearly at a safe distance, hearing something like that while standing in a mountain valley always creates a slightly uneasy feeling.
FÜSSEN, GERMANY
19.11.2023: As darkness sets in, we arrive in today’s final destination — Füssen. The original plan was that if we managed to reach the city while there was still daylight, we could take a short walk along the Auwaldpfad treetop trail, located on the opposite bank of the Lech River. Since we arrive with only about 10–15 minutes of daylight left, we make it only as far as the first bridge.
From there we watch the Lechfall waterfall, where the rushing river crashes violently into the rocks of the gorge below, creating an impressive mix of roaring sound and flying water spray. A sign on the bridge clearly states: “Swimming forbidden.” Honestly, who would even consider that a good idea?
For the night we check into Haus San Marco, where our apartment costs €135 plus €10 tourist tax for four people. The place is spacious, comfortable, and located only 300 meters from the old town. After a short rest we head there for a walk.
The streets are surprisingly quiet. Apart from a single cat that follows us around for about 15 minutes, we don’t encounter many other living creatures. The town has the classic Bavarian charm — colorful buildings and beautiful architecture everywhere. One small disappointment: Hohes Schloss, the castle overlooking the old town, isn’t illuminated at all. In the darkness it’s almost impossible to see it properly. Most likely we won’t have time to explore Füssen in daylight tomorrow either.
On the way back we stop for drinks at the Ludwigs restaurant, where we sit down to review the day. In a single day we passed through Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Germany. Quite an interesting day, full of sights and places. Even though we spent a fair amount of time in the car, it never really felt like it. That’s probably because none of the drives lasted longer than about an hour. Drive a bit, stop somewhere to explore, walk around, grab something to eat — and just
like that, the kilometers disappear surprisingly quickly.
NEUSCHWANSTEIN, GERMANY
20.11.2023: Before heading home today, there is one more stop we absolutely must visit – one of the most famous castles not only in Germany, but arguably in the entire world: Neuschwanstein Castle. Buying tickets in advance wasn’t possible for me, because they need to be booked well in advance, but when you arrive early in the morning, a small number of additional tickets are sometimes released for sale on site. So that’s exactly what we do. After a quick snack at the apartment and congratulating today’s birthday celebrant — Santa, we jump into the car.
The drive is short — less than 10 minutes, and we’re already there. Tickets cost €15 per person. To save time, we take the bus up the mountain, which costs another €3 each. Walking would take about 30 minutes uphill, which didn’t seem like the best use of time.
When buying the tickets we were told that one of the most famous viewpoints in the park — Marienbrücke — was closed for reconstruction. However, once we reached the top, it turned out that the bridge was actually open.
Because of that announcement, most visitors apparently didn’t even bother going there — which worked out perfectly for us. At first there were maybe 6–10 people on the bridge, but after walking to another viewpoint on the far side and returning, we suddenly realized that the four of us were completely alone on the bridge.
For Madara and me, this was our second visit to Neuschwanstein. The first time, five years ago, the bridge was absolutely packed with tourists — barely any room to turn around. Now you could practically lie down on the bridge and watch the view in peace.
That moment — enjoying the castle view and the Alpine surroundings without crowds — was easily one of the highlights of the trip.
Our castle tour starts at 10:20. In Germany, everything runs precisely to the minute. This time we receive audio guides (during our previous visit there was a live guide) and enter the castle.
The guided tour lasts about 30 minutes, after which you can spend another 15–20 minutes walking through the small exhibition areas and souvenir shop.
Several rooms are currently under restoration, so not everything is accessible. The interior is certainly impressive, but personally, both times I’ve visited, I actually enjoyed the surrounding park and views even more than the castle rooms themselves.
So if someone chooses to skip the interior tour and instead spend the time walking through the park and admiring the castle from the outside, they won’t miss out too much.
We were also lucky with the weather, which allowed for particularly clear views across the Alpine panorama.
Before heading to the airport, we still need a proper meal — whether it counts as late breakfast or early lunch at this point is debatable. We choose Ludwigs Stüberl, a small restaurant located downhill on the main road Alpseestraße. Service is very fast, which is perfect because we’re working with limited time. The food is simple but very good — classic German cuisine: potatoes, sausages, and sauerkraut. In Germany, it’s hard to go wrong with that combination.
The four of us pay €118 for the meal, and it’s both generous and very tasty
FMM-RIX
20.11.2023: Lunch ends up taking a bit longer than planned, so I decide to make up some time using one of Germany’s greatest engineering achievements — the Autobahn with no speed limits. The car’s technical capabilities and the weather conditions allow for a bit of boyish entertainment, pressing the gas pedal slightly harder than one normally would. Let’s just say the BMW handles it very comfortably.
Before reaching the airport, we still need to refuel the car. A full tank costs €85, and interestingly, the entire trip was completed with just that single refill.
Returning the rental car turns out to be incredibly simple. At the airport parking lot, you just drop the keys into a box and that’s it. The airport itself is fairly busy, but everything moves smoothly. Within 15 minutes we’re already through security. Now there are only about 40 minutes left until the flight, and tomorrow it’s back to work and normal life.
I can only give Sixt a very positive review. The deposit reservation on the credit card was released within two days, which in my previous experiences usually takes much longer. Bonus points for Sixt. All in all, a very interesting three-day escape. About 470 kilometers driven, five countries visited, and a huge amount of impressions and beautiful scenery along the way.
Total trip cost: ~€2000
Cost per person per day: ~€166