Monday, Labor Day in the USA, we left Munich for the Swan King's Castle (Schloss Neuschwanstein). This is the famous castle that it is said Disney copied. It was commissioned by King Ludwig II in the late 1800's but was never finished. Ludwig became king at an early age but it did not suit him, he spent his time and others peoples money building lavish castles (3 of them) and was eventually removed from power and mysteriously was found floating in the lake with his Dr the next day. He never lived in his fantasy castle. Bavaria was so far in debt when he died the government almost immediately started giving tours to recover the expenses to build the castle. It is a sad story.
Vanessa told us that tickets to this castle are one of the bigger challenges for her tour company but the gods being in our favor, we had tickets and the weather looked perfect.
We got a bit nervous at our first photo stop because the castle was surrounded by fog, not good for pictures. Of course we tried anyway.
We continued on up the mountain. Everyone has to be shuttled up to the Castle, from the shuttle point you have a nice view of King Ludwigs father's Castle, Hohenschwangau Castle, where he grew up. Despite the idyllic setting he did not have a good childhood.
We were dropped by the shuttle a short walk from the castle but we first hiked a few hundred yards up to the Marienbrücke. This bridge provides spectacular views of Castle Neuschwanstein.
We took a lot of pictures of the castle from the outside once we got there but in reality you are too close for good pictures. This is from the balcony in the courtyard before you enter the castle.
We got a nice tour of the castle, it was amazing, too bad the king never got to enjoy it. Inside the castle photos of any kind are not allowed, however we could step out onto one of the balconies and get a shot. The views are second to none.
After the tour we were hungry, so we got a Pretzel Wurst, not bad.
From the castle we took the 20 min walk back down the mountain to where our bus was waiting, we need to walk off that wurst. About 2PM we boarded the bus to head for the Black Forest Region.
The drive to the Black Forest is not highway, we were on switchback roads, farm country and passed many orchards and vineyards. I was somewhat surprised how rural Germany can be. It is comforting to know that Europe still has quite a bit of unpopulated real-estate.
Our route took us to the most southern area of Germany. We made a stop just to take in the views of Lake Constance. It is a huge, beautiful lake, over 60km long and 14km wide. In this picture we are with two of the Fab4, Todd and Joan.
The Birnau Abbey Church was just a few steps away.
The inside is more beautiful than we expected.
We arrived at our hotel in the Black Forest pretty late in the day, around 7PM. We all gathered for a nice dinner but I think everyone was pretty tired from the long bus day.
It was a long day and the realization that we only have one real day left makes us a bit sad, but all good things do come to an end eventually. Tomorrow we visit Heidelberg and then move onto Frankfurt for the end of the tour.
Such extravagance! The Biltmore does compare, at least it was finished. The countryside and the views are spectacular.
ReplyDeleteThat pretzel wurst looks huge!
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