Visiting Fairytale Land

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We did not post last night because we were exhausted after climbing thousands of steps and hiking from castle to castle. The wait for the busses was too long so we hiked to the top! The weather was a bit cloudy and rainy at times today but it did not stop us from seeing these romantic fairly tale homes of kings and queens.

We spent our day visiting the Hohenschwangau Castle and the Neuschwantein Castle. The first stop was Hohenschwangau (yellow), originally built in the 12th century, it was rebuilt by King Maximilian in 1830. This was used as a summer home and hunting lodge by the Royal family until 1912. It is still owned by Wittelsbach family today. The entire interior of the castle is filled with original wall paintings in every room, priceless antiques and gifts that were given to kings and queens. The rooms were decorated lavishly, yet they were cozy.

Our next stop was the Museum of Bavarian Kings which was located between the two castles and we had lunch at the Museum. Lunch included boar ravioli and beer cheese spiatzel.

After a big lunch we began climbing to Neuschwantein Castle, you will notice it resembles the castle from Beauty and the Beast(White). This beautiful fairy tale home of King Ludwig II was built between 1869-1886. The king died suddenly at the age of 40, he only lived in the castle for 172 days. We were able to tour the first and third floor of the castle. The second floor of the castle was never completed. Like Hohenschwangau, the rooms are elaborately painted with not an inch of wall exposed and all the furnishings are the original designed for the king. The theme of the paintings in the castle are based on many of Wagner's operas because the King was such a fan of his work. The throne room and the kings bedroom were some of our favorite places.

We were not able to take pictures inside the castle because of the preservation of these items.

We also walked over to Mary's Bridge which is high above a waterfall and gets great views of Neuschwantein castle. We took a ride to Ruette, Austria but came back soon after because there was not much to see there. We ended out long day with a few beers and a great dinner.

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