Schloß Neuenschwanstein

Wow, have a look where we were today!

Wow!

Armin took us to Schloß Neuenschwanstein, which is an hour and forty-five minutes drive from here.
It was so worth it, the sight of the castle as you approach is quite something. Even the trip to the castle leads through some cute Bavarian villages and a township with lots of houses with wooden balconies and religious murals on their walls.
Most of the churches here are catholic and have ‘onion’ shaped roofs in contrast to he steep steeples, which are more common in other parts of Germany. The church is always in the centre of the village.
When you get to the village just below the castles (yes there is more than one!) you have to park the car in a big car park and then walk up the village. The ticket office is there, quite a few restaurants, cafes and plenty of tacky tourist shops (which didn’t stop us from going into them!)
There was a long queue at the ticket office but my clever cousin had pre booked our tickets and so we were able to walk straight past the line and go to the ‘pick up only’ part, which was empty!
The walk up to the castle is about half an hour and unbelievably it started snowing quite heavily as we were making our way up there. Perhaps it was the Bavarian gods showing us that it can actually snow here!!

A mountain stream.

Many people from many different countries.

You can enter the castle only with a ticket for a guided tour, which are run regularly in English and German. Once inside you are no longer allowed to take any photos. The castle was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and it took twenty years to built to its current state. Sadly the king died suddenly at the age of 40 and so he only ever lived there for 172 days.
He died under slightly mysterious circumstances, a day after he been declared insane and the crown had been taken off him…he was found in a lake together with one of the doctors who wrote the report declaring him insane…to this day no one knows if he jumped and the doc tried to rescue him or if both slipped or one pushed the other….anyhow, the castle construction was stopped and so the last tower and the chapel were never built.
We saw a multimedia show in which we saw a 3D version of what the castle would have looked like had it been completed. Only then could I tell that this would have made a difference and would have made it all look more balanced.
Unbelievably, in 1883, six years before his death, he had already commissioned the construction of another castle, Schloß Falkenstein, for which amazing drawings exist. This of course was never started but the same media show showed what it would have looked like and again it was stunning and on an even more exposed site. The drawings included designs for some of the rooms, like an amazing bathroom, kind of Roman looking, as well as beautiful murals on most of the walls and ceilings.
Once we had concluded the tour we walked a bit further still to the “Marienbrücke” a spectacular bridge from which we had a stunning view to the castle from the other side.

Close up from the other side.

Armin and I on the bridge.

Ben didn’t want to be on the photo.

Then it was time to start our way home and once here we were welcomed by a welcoming smell of melting cheese and baking potatoes. Barbara had made Raclette (a Swiss cheese that is melted under a grill in little individual frying pans) and we ate those potatoes, salad, gherkins and tomatoes with it. Yummy!! Ben even had some pasta cooked for him as he isn’t a potato fan.
Thanks you for an amazing day and a delicious finish to it.
Tomorrow is our last day here…
Bye for now
Tanja

Oh, I nearly forgot…directly opposite is another castle…Hohenschwangau. We didn’t go and see that as well…something for our next trip. Ludwig grew up in Hohenschwangau and apparently purchased land for Neuenschwangau at a young age (13yrs) to build his dream castle there.