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Published: September 30th 2017
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Wearing lederhosen - why???Geo: 47.5839, 10.7062
Same ol' breakfast that I've seemingly had for an eternity now, and then off to Neuschwanstein, Mad King Ludwig's famous castle that was the inspiration for Cinderella's Castle in Disneyland. As I walked to the bus stop, I found out the name of the cutest kid from the group that tried to lock me in the laundry room yesterday night - Ziggy! He was traveling with his mother and three other brothers - I felt sorry for her, because that must be a lot of work!
The bus timing was terrible - I had to catch an early bus otherwise I would've missed my 10:45 entrance time to Hohenschwangau, the less famous of the two castles I would be seeing today. I arrived significantly before the allotted time. With so much time to kill, I wandered around the area and took some great pictures of the Alpsee Lake.
Hohenschwangau the castle where Mad King Ludwig grew up, and actually gives you more details about his life, because Neuschwanstein was the dream castle Ludwig had built for himself, but never really got to enjoy. Ludwig really was a freak - the ceiling in the King's bedroom was originally painted with
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Spanish tour buses!!!! The probability of senorita sightings is very high here!!! a daytime sky motif, but when Ludwig ascended the throne, he had it painted as a nighttime sky.
But he didn't stop there - he had some holes drilled into the ceiling, and long crystals were inserted that led up to a room above that was filled with oil lamps. This made the crystals sparkle, giving the effect of twinkling stars as he slept ... ok ... overall, this castle was pretty average. After, I grabbed lunch at a nearby cafeteria.
Neuschwanstein was pretty cool - it's actually quite young for a castle, finished in 1886. Well, not quite finished - much of the interior was never completed, because Ludwig was deposed from the throne after being declared mentally unfit to rule, and died under mysterious circumstances only days later - he either killed himself, or was murdered.
The most bizarre room in the castle was the grotto, a room designed to look like the interior of a cave. Interesting because it was so bizarre, but not really much to look at. But maybe if you added a waterfall and sprinkling of Playboy Bunnies, it could compete with Hugh Hefner's place. After the tour, I watched an incredibly boring video about
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The Alpsee lake. Ludwig's life.
Over to Mary's bridge, for some nice views of the castle and surrounding hills and foliage. It's not for claustrophobes, as it was packed shoulder to shoulder with tourists. After I hiked back down, the skies opened and drenched everything. My sandal-clad feet were soaked and filthy after, and I shuddered at the thought of all that crap from the horse-drawn carriages having ended up on my feet ...
I had wanted to try out a nearby luge track, but couldn't - they'd have to wait for it to dry after the rain, and there's no guarantee that it would even re-open, so I might waste an hour walking there and back for no reason at all. I decided to head back to Fussen, and sat on a bench at the bus station, listening to the pitter patter of the now gently-falling rain, and the beautiful sounds of females conversing in Spanish 😊
I JUST missed the next bus back to Fussen - I was the next person in line, but the door closed in my face. It was my own fault for briefly stepping out of line for the bus, and hordes of people ended up rushing past as
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Hohenschwangau castle. the bus opened its doors. Luckily, the next bus arrived five minutes later - I ended up seeing Ziggy's family on the bus.
Back in town - the TI/ticket office was closed, so there would be no "La Traviata" for me tonight 😞 I wanted a snack, but all the bakeries and butcher shops were closing. There was a glimmer of hope as I spotted some activity in the Nordsee (and one of their rockin' fried fish sandwiches would have been killer right then), but they were also closing up. I eventually found a pizzeria, Pizza-Pasta Americano, and had some terrible margherita pizza.
I did some blogging at an internet cafe - all of a sudden, I heard something slam into the glass window, and next thing you know, I see two guys stomping on some other guy's face! WTF? The internet cafe worker chased the two guys off, as I picked my jaw up off of the floor. I'm sure the dude was hurt pretty bad, and so was I today ...
I received an email from Chad, who jokingly observed that my trip is "one long, expensive, endeavor to stare at hot chicks. I'm not even sure that you
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View from Hohenschwangau castle. even give a crap about travel. It's almost as if you just like to change the scenery. That's an expensive way to go I guess." I wasn't hurt that he thought such things ... I was hurt that he's known me all these years, and never knew my true travel motivations! It's not like I've ever hidden this from the world! I chuckled to myself and went in search of dinner. I settled on a Thai/Chinese place, hoping to have some more crispy duck like I ate in Baden Baden.
I had originally planned on walking to the nearby waterfall, but it was too rainy and cold to bother. I wandered around Fussen instead, and caught some of the marathon. Back at the hostel, I saw the nice old man with the putrid BO - he told me he was getting up early tomorrow and "Good luck to you, your family, Canada, and Vancouver!" If only I was as nice as the old man ... then I probably wouldn't constantly refer to him as "the old man with the putrid BO".
A bit of journal writing, a bit of reading (the first 60 pages of "A Tale of Two Cities"!),
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For those that remember that creepy Isabel doll - this is Heidi, her German cousin! and off to bed. The kids are friggin' loud in this hostel!
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