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Published: January 22nd 2010
Yesterday we got up early so that we could go to the castles. We had breakfast and then got on the road. We did an excellent job without directions! Found the castles, no problem (plus we followed a bus that lead us there). It was fairly empty and we went and got tickets to see both castles. The first one was Hohenschwangau Castle. It's smaller, yellow, and wasn't too high up. We climbed up some steep stairs and a little bit of a hill. It was built by King Maximillian II, father of Ludwig II. It was where Ludwig II grew up. The tour was about 30 minutes long, and it was cool to see the inside of the castle. Most (if not all) of the rooms had paintings done directly on the wall depicting German history or legends. I liked the way the paintings looked - shiny and smooth. It fit well with the style of art.
Afterward we had an hour and 15 minutes to trek up to Neuschwanstein Castle. It's about a 30 to 40 minute walk up a steep hill. It was tiring, but worth it. There were amazing views from up there! Even though the
castle is up on a hill top, there are still mountains behind it. Very beautiful and impressive. The castle was never finished, but it is still impressive to look at. The tour was shorter than the first one, but it was fun to see the rooms that were completed. It's a much bigger castle and was King Ludwig II's homage to Richard Wagner. The rooms had paintings that were German history/legend or scenes inspired from Wagner's work. The decorating seemed much more extravagant. There were large chandeliers and intricately carved wooded doors, ceilings, and most notably his bedroom (I think she said it took 14 woodcarvers 4 years to carve everything).
We walked down a steeper path through the forest leaving and then got in the car around 2pm. It took us about 5 hours to get to Titisee. We hit a lot of traffic around Lake Konstance (which was pretty) and then there were all these construction signs (or rather crossing-out-our-exit) that detoured us around. Finally we got here. We are staying at another Guesthouse: Gasthaus Sonnenmatte. It's a little bit away from the "main" area, but I like all the green around us. We had dinner here,
Hohenschwangau Castle
View of Neuschwanstein from Hohenschwangau CastleI got a pork steak with a really good sauce and some Black Forest soup with noodles. The room only had feather pillows, and one non feather blanket, so I had to improvise a pillow out of clothes. It was fine. I slept well enough.
This morning we went to Freiburg. We had to take a long back way there because of construction, but it worked out well because the drive was beautiful. We saw signs for a waterfall and followed them. I think it's the Todtnauer Wasserfall that we saw. We were at the top, so we had to walk down a seep path. The waterfall isn't one continuous one, there are a few smaller falls before a bigger one. We saw 3 of them, but it was too far down to see the biggest drop - we knew we'd have to climb back up. It was super tiring, but awesome. We continued on to Freiburg and it was not at all what I was expecting from reading the guidebook. I though it'd be a bigger town, but still look like a smaller charming town. But to me, it was just a big town that happened to be
Hohenschwangau Castle
Fountain at the castle. in a forest. We parked and went to the Munster, which is a big church made of red sandstone. There was a big street market outside of it that was closing up. The inside was cool, but under some construction. Afterward we walked to a place for lunch, but really chose it because they had black forest cake. Lunch was okay, but the cake was delicious! The cherries in it were the best part. We also got carbonated water, which I don't think I've ever had before. It was kind of weird.
We got back in the car, and tried to leave, but got lost around the city. It was frustrating. We finally made it out and drove to Triberg, which is in the central black forest. It was cute, but since it was 6pm already most of the shops were closed or closing. We may go back tomorrow - they have Germany's tallest waterfall!
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clint
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neuschwanstein
I just recently toured neuschwanstein my junior year of high school, 2009. The walk up the STEEP hill was totally worth it! The walk took about thirty minutes. Our group only had a short time in the castle. I wish we could've spent the whole day in it. I would love to go back, and am planning on it.