Legacy of Mad King Ludwig

After leaving Stuttgart, we went to Füssen in southern Bavaria - home to gorgeous mountain scenery and two of the most visited castles in Germany. Our guidebooks had warned us that we needed to be prepared to deal with lines and crowds, even mentioning that in the summer, we would need to be in line for tickets by 8 AM, or we would risk not getting any. We figured since it was in November, we wouldn't have to worry so much about it. There were still lines longer than any we had experienced in our vacation, but we did manage to get our tickets.

The two castles were associated with "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau was built by Ludwig II's father and inspired him so much that he decided to build his own fairy tale castle, Neuschwanstein (this is the castle that supposedly inspired Walt Disney when he designed the castle for Disneyland). These castles were built in the 19th century on top of ruins of other castles.

First we toured Hohenschwangau. Looking at the scenery of the mountains and lakes surrounding it, it was easy to see how Ludwig II could be so inspired to build his own fairy tale castle further up the mountain.


Inside, the decor was very ornate and there were many murals all over the walls. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside and the guards were very strict about it. One woman in our group took a few pictures in one of the rooms and a guard came up to her and said, "That is it for you, lady, you are finished here." The guard tried to confiscate her camera and everything! I guess they take such things very seriously.

Here you can see Neuschwanstein in the distance from where I am standing at Hohenschwangau (the yellowish castle more in the foreground).


After our tour of Hohenschwangau, we made our way to Neuschwanstein. Castle tours here were done on a timed entry. When Tanja was buying our tickets for both castles she explained that she wanted an earlier entry to the second castle than was allowed because we are fast walkers. The cashier was upset and refused at first warning her severely that we weren't going to have enough time to get from one to the other before our desired entry time at Neuschwanstein. If we didn't make it to the other castle in time to be herded through along with 60 other tourists in our group and time slot, we would not be able to get in and would lose the money we spent. The cashier insisted repeatedly that "you are doing this at your own risk!" Well, we wound up walking at a brisk pace, and the walk that was supposed to take 40-45 minutes took us 17. We walked much faster than the horse-drawn carriage pulled people uphill. I knew we were fast walkers, but this caused me to discount everything we were reading in our guidebooks and that the people at the tourist attractions were telling us about distances. If even a pregnant woman can make that trip in less than half the time they claim, they must assume that everyone walks at a snail's pace. Either that, or they just want everyone to have tons of downtime to spend in the gift shops...

As it was, we had plenty of time to get some good pictures of Neuschwanstein.


On our tour, we learned more about these castles. For instance, Richard Wagner, the famous German composer was a houseguest on multiple occasions as he was much admired by Ludwig. Many of the murals depicted scenes from Wagner's operas. Ludwig only spent 172 days in Neuschwantsein before he was declared insane and unfit to rule. Shortly after this, he died in a mysterious drowning accident that was never fully investigated. Conspiracy theories abound over the circumstances of his death. The castle itself was only a third completed by the time he died, and shortly thereafter, was open to the public for tours. Now it is the most frequently visited castle in Germany.

The same story applied as far as taking pictures of the interior - strictly verboten. However, we did get some pictures from the outside terraces.


That is Hohenschwangau in the distance of this picture of Tanja:


After our tour, we walked to Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge) that spans a gorge behind the castle. Again, this walk is supposed to take 20 minutes - we did it in seven. We got a great view of the castle from a different angle:


We finally made our way back to the car and poor Snoopy who had been left there and was quite excited to see us. We walked along the Alpsee, a lake that sits nearby Hohenschwangau. Snoopy loved that walk. He was so intent on sniffing around, he was completely oblivious to his surroundings and a new friend he found:

As the sun was setting over the mountains, we were left to marvel at the beautiful scenery. These castles really were worthy of being called fairy tales.