Neuschwanstein Castle of King Ludwig 2

Friday 3rd October

With damp jeans hung up all over the beds and hung up in the shower, we set off for King Ludwig II’s most famous and photographed castle Schloss Neuschwanstein. It was raining when we left the camping ground and it was still raining when we arrived at the gorgeous town of Fussen and boy was it packed with tourist!! When I asked about the million tourists, the lady smiled and informed me that we’d come to the castle on the wrong day. Friday was a public holiday and therefore all the Germans were having a long weekend and visiting the castle with us!! Damn!!

The rain hadn’t stopped falling so we ventured out with all our wet wear gear including colourful water ponchos for the kids. When my parents and kids stood close by, they reminded me of gelati colours.

By the end of the day, mine and Joshua’s shoes and socks were saturated.

Poor Katelyn was sniffling and looking terrible. Any caring parents would have sacrificed the day and kept her inside the motor home. But not us!!! We dragged her up a steep hill for a 30 minute walk all the while trying to shelter ourselves from the rain. We passed some horse and carts and Joshua was thrilled when we saw their poos!!! He thought it was very entertaining that the poo was being diluted by the rain and slowly running down the hill that we were walking up!!! He’s a strange kid!

When we bought the tickets we were given a time to meet our tour guide in the castle’s courtyard. If we were late then we’d missed the tour and had to repurchase the tickets.

(Half way up the mountain, we stopped and had some food from a café. Kurt and Joshua ordered meat loaf and chips. Well the chips were nice but the meatloaf was just strass.)

Once we climbed the steep mountain, we found a massive queue that reached well beyond the castle’s gate. The situation was made even harder because it was still raining and there were umbrellas everywhere. If you weren’t wetting someone with your umbrella, then someone’s umbrella was dripping on your shoulder. That’s how closely packed in we were while we waiting to get in.

Later we realised what the problem was. Each tour had an allocated number, ours was 456 and our time was 1.40pm. But there were people whose tours didn’t start until 2.40 pm who had arrived early and were understandably sheltering in the entrance of the castle. The problem began when these people didn’t move and the people whose tours were starting were outside the gates waiting in the rain for the queue to move. It was so badly organised. Until that point we had no idea that people were sheltering from the rain, we thought there was a just huge queue.

Once we started our tour, it just got worse. The tours were squashed in so tight that you couldn’t slow down because the next tour was right behind you. It was annoying to pay $18 each and not be able to take any footage or photos in the castle. Our tour guide was something else!! The jury is still out as to whether the guide was a man or woman….. He looked and had the mannerisms of Mr G from Summer Heights High.
He spoke in the most ridiculous accent and had the campest (is that a real word?) hand gestures.

We left the castle and decided to walk a little further, (against the kids’ wishes and that was the closest we’ve had to mutiny) a little further to a bridge that we’d seen in all the photos. It was a bit of a hike but once we crossed the little bridge (Katelyn was too scared to stay on the bridge b/c it was thin and had a little movement), the views were spectacular……. It felt like something out of a movie, small little towns nestled amongst green pastures in front of snow capped mountains. And to top it off this fairytale castle in the middle of this postcard. That was the amazing thing. We’d only seen this scene in books and postcards and now we were seeing it for real!!!

After our leisurely hike down the mountain, we paid for the car park, sat in our motor home and had the warmest cups of coffee with cake!!! The problem was getting out the car park. We couldn’t get out with our ticket and tried a few different exits but nope! We weren’t getting out of that car park any time soon……

Finally it dawned on Kurt that maybe our cups of coffee had extended our parking time so he went and tried to pay with the ticket again……and we had to pay more!!! Obviously for those damn coffees, we left and thought Jesus!!!

We were leaving Germany and moving to Austria and it seemed like we could tell the minute we turned a corner. The landscape changed ever so subtly but it was enough for Kurt to fall in love all over again.

More snow capped mountains but this time closer and more dramatic. It seemed the autumn colours were more pronounced and we’ve all agreed it has been the best time of year to visit. Fresh but not freezing….yet!!!

Once we entered Austria we had to find a petrol station or post to purchase a GO START, which is the equivalent to our City Link. We had to prepay for the kms we may potentially drive on the freeway. But b/c we have 6 wheels and therefore 3 axels we’ve charged like a big touring bus. Other motor homes have 4 wheels and 2 axel and pay .18E per km BUT we have to pay .38E per km and an upfront cost of 158E instead of 28E!!!! Kurt was pissed off, especially when the majority of motor home had 2 axels!!

Anyway, we paid and are now avoiding all free way and taking the scenic route through Austria and it’s the best decision we could have made. How could we see Austria any other way?

---

---