Day #18: Neuschwanstein Castle

On Day #18, I left Munich for an all day tour of the castles of Mad King Ludwig II. Anti-social to the extreme, he was not happy with his family castle and set out an ambitious building program. He started construction on three different castles, all outside of the Bavarian capital of Munich. He finished one and mostly finished the other two before he was forced off the throne and then found dead two days later under mysterious circumstances.

We left Munich on a two level tour bus and made our way to the first castle, Lindehof castle. Carefully tucked away at the base of a mountain, Lindehof castle was on the small side (as castles go), with only two floors and about 20 or so rooms.

This was a favorite of Ludwig and he spent a great majority of his time here after he finished it. My favorite part was the cool gardens and fountain he had out front.

After that, we bundled back into the bus for a quick side trip to the small scenic town of Oberammergau, where they are known for putting on a Passion play once every decade for the past 400 or so years. (They originally started the play as a thanksgiving for sparing them from the Bubonic plague.)

Finally, it was on to the main castle, Neuschwanstein. Ludwig had this castle built not from an architect's drawing, but rather from a painter's. He had a painter conceptualize what he thought a king's castle should be and then went from there. Ludwig had it mostly completed and lived in it for only about 100 days until he died. We did a tour of the interior, which was impressive, at least the parts that were finished. He had a huge Wagner fetish and had a cave and grotto built into his castle since that was a feature in one of Wagner's operas.

Although, the tour bus could only take us up to the base of the mountain the castle sat on. We had to use on of three ways to get up to the top: (1) pay two euros and take the bus that came every 20 minutes, (2) pay six euros and take a horse drawn carriage up, or (3) pay nothing and hike the mile up at a steep angle.

I think by now you all know which option I picked. My vacations, as some of you well know, have a tendency of turning into fat camps. By that, I mean I walk everywhere to see sights and think nothing of launching up a steep hike for a good view. And when you throw in my natural thriftiness, the choice was practically pre-ordained. So, when I made the hike up (our guide told us it would take 45 minutes, I made it in 20) to the castle, I had time to kill. Then, i found out you could hike up even higher to a bridge for a great view of the castle. It was hard work, but I think you can see from the pictures that was well worth it. While it was a little cloudy and rainy, you could still see the castle quite clearly.

One interesting thing about Neuschwanstein castle is that it supposedly is the basis for the castle at Walt Disney World. What do you think?


We were warned to be at the bus by 5pm so we can get back to Munich. In the abundance of caution, I got back at 4:50pm. Well, it turns out other people were not so cautious. Out of a bus of 70 some odd people, 6 people were late. We waited until 5:20 and then, in the face of a mini-passenger revolt led by a Brazilian who had to catch a train, we left them behind. I hope they had a way of getting back to Munich!