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Published: September 4th 2011
It was raining when we left the hotel this morning, raining when we made the drive toward Neuschwanstein and raining when I made two wrong turns on a confusing roundabout (the right lane forced us to exit only after we realized we didn’t want the right lane… twice).
When we arrived at the parking lot for Neuschwanstein, it had miraculously stopped raining and stayed that way during our entire visit. We picked up our reserved tickets (if you go, please take my advise and pre-reserve your tickets… we waited in line for 2 minutes whereas the people who just showed up were in line for probably an hour). After getting our tickets we walked over to the bus and bought roundtrip tickets (2,60 euro for the roundtrip) before having to wait about 20 minutes to catch the ride up. Just like yesterday, they packed the buses VERY FULL so we were all smelling each other’s armpit’s the entire ride up.
The bus drops you off right near the path to Marienbrucke, so we walked over and got our photos of the castle first just in case the rain started again. It’s less than a 5-minute walk to the bridge
and then about a 10-minute walk down to the castle.
They have lines set up and when your tour number comes up, you scan your ticket and get in the appropriate line. It’s a very organized system and flows very smoothly to get as many people through as possible. The tour is short (about 30 minutes) but worth it just seeing King Ludwig II’s bedroom alone (all hand-carved wood). After the tour we did some souvenir shopping and then drove on to Linderhof Palace, the only Ludwig castle that was completed and about an hour from Neuschwanstein.
By thie point the rain had started again, which was okay because we were so happy it had stopped earlier in the day. There are fewer people here so pre-reserved tickets aren’t really necessary, especially if you are visiting the other castle first and really won’t know what time you’ll arrive.
Our tour was set for 4:35pm so we walked around the gardens and took pictures. The grounds are beautiful and there are impressive fountains on both sides. The tour was also short (about 25 minutes) but also interesting because Ludwig spent most of his time here. There is a
room of mirrors that is amazing because when you look through each side, the room appears to go on forever.
It was pouring when we left and we made the short drive on to Oberammergau to spend the night. There is not much to do here when the Passion Play isn’t going on, but It’s a cute little town and we wandered around the church and cemetery before stopping to eat at Speisen & Getranke, where I had Nuremberg sausages and Radler beer before walking back to our hotel. The place we’re staying at, Hotel Kopa Garni , is a bed and breakfast (as most places are in Oberammergau) and the owner had beer and wine set out for 2 euro each. We grabbed some Helles and drank them in the room before calling it a night. It’s nice to have the news in English here… in Munich the channels were all in German. Good practice, but my German is not quite good enough yet to understand more than a few words here and there.
Tomorrow we drive to Kehlstein (Hitler’s Eagles Nest) and then on to Salzburg!
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