Mad Ludwig's Castle

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Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802

We visited Neuschwanstein today. We left Innsbruck around 9am and headed north. Fletcher wanted to go to Garmisch-Partenkirchen so we made that our first destination. It was a cool, cloudy day but as it warmed up we enjoyed some excellent views. From Garmisch we continued to Fussen from whence we could access Neuschwanstein castle. The minor road we took to get to Fussen took us through some spectacular scenery. Stopped next to Plansee, a beautiful still lake where the reflections of the colourful trees and the mountains afforded spectacular scenery.
We arrived at "mad" King Ludwig's castle around 12. The car park was jam packed. I would hate to see it in peak summer time. While Marg queued for tickets we had a look around. There are two castles here, one in which Ludwig grew up and the other one he built. Once we had the tickets we then walked up the hill to the castle. This took 20 minutes but was uphill all the way. At least it was cool and the scenery was beautiful. Our tour was scheduled for 12-45pm so we had about a 20 minute wait. Took lots of photos and wrote postcards to little boys.
The tour was very interesting. The castle was built to honour Wagner. In every room there were murals depicting the various myths upon which Wagner's operas are based. Brent was particularly interested as he has read much about the Ring Cycle. The rooms that we saw were the only ones that were finished when Ludwig mysteriously drowned. They were all elaborate. The throne room was set up like a Byzantine church but the Singer's Hall was the most impressive. Ludwig's eccentricity was shown by the artificial cave he had installed on the third floor.
It was a fascinating place and certainly worth the visit. It is one of the most well known castles in Europe so I was glad to match my daughters in visiting it.
We then drove into Munich. This was about an hour or so drive. We took the Rankines to the Railway station and said farewell about 4pm. Fletch and I then found a hotel close by. Once settled we walked into the city centre. Neither of us had been here since 1980 so it was interesting to view it all over again. Amazingly, we found the same pianist busking in Marienplatz who had been in Salzburg last night!! He and his grand piano sure move around. We found a traditional German restaurant for dinner and had some great food.
Not long to go now but we are still enjoying our experiences

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