The Castle Of Castles

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Fussen
October 16th 2016

Published: November 21st 2016

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Delek Delek

The Money Shot

The famous, spectacularly set, fantastical castle of Neuschwanstein.

I found myself in a little bit of a rush as usual. Salzburg is great for cyclists - but this time I had no bike and had a forty minute walk to the bus stop with my luggage instead. At least all the pavements were smooth! Unlike the ones in Chisinau. Gee whizz.
Anyway, I made the bus easily and was on my way to Munich although I wasn't staying for long - it's somewhere I been before. But I was going to be in town just long enough to visit Yao - a friend I made in Mancora, Peru, just under ten months ago. Yao was also kind enough to to put me up for the night.

I always enjoy coming back to Germany - it is a very culturally inclusive place which is important to me and the country is just so well run. It is why I think I'd love to live in Germany for a bit - I think I'd be comfortable here and would really enjoy it.
But I stayed less than 24 hours in Munich - it was long enough for dinner with Yao and two of his friends at a Sichuan restaurant (the first decent Chinese I've had for some time - spicy

Down By The Alpsee

Relaxing by the beautiful lake in Hohenschwangau, the town at the bottom of the hill from Neuschwanstien.

though!) before I went back to the bus station at midday the next day to catch my bus to Fussen. It was a good catch up and I hope to see Yao again some day.

I've been really impressed with Flix Bus; the buses are nice and new, they're cheap and they even have on-board toilets and wifi. More than comfortable.
After hanging out for an hour in a carpark in Ulm, I then caught a connecting bus to my final destination of Fussen.
I was well and truly on the move since leaving Salzburg; this is because I have a week to get to Basel for my flight to London with a few tourist stops in between. But this was also because I wanted to get through the most expensive area of my European jaunt as quickly a possible - to spend the minimum amount of time and money required to see and do what I wanted.
This is where Brexit has not helped one jot. At the start of the European leg, my budget was 35€ a day; post-referendum, the pound has plunged 15% and my daily budget is now less than 30€ a day. Just like

Throne Room

Like something out of a fairy tale. Had to sneakily take this photo.

that. For nothing. Fuck you Brexit. The silver lining is that I only have a week more in Europe before getting back to the UK.

The small but pleasant and pretty Bavarian town of Fussen was nicer than I thought. The pedestrianised old town is lined with colourful, 17th century buildings and I was even greeted by a trio of traditional Bavarian horn players who were entertaining the locals and tourists milling about on a Saturday afternoon. It was a pretty quiet place for a Saturday night though, which was fine with me, as I was quite tired.

There are certain backpacker trails; in South America and Central America, there are very obvious ones going either north or south to pretty much all the same places. But Europe is so interconnected and there are so many options of places to go that you can pretty much go in any direction from anywhere. Having done all the major cities and places first time around, I found back then that I did occasionally bump into the same people a little, but not nearly as much as when I was in Latin America. There have been some backpacker trails that I have stumbled onto

Hohenschwangau Castle

Castle at the foot of hill of where Neuschwanstein is perched, where Ludwig II grew up.

on this trip; from Croatia across to Bosnia and then down through Montenegro to Albania is one; Pristina/Skopje to Brasov via Bulgaria is another. But generally I have been off the well-beaten backpacker track and have been to more Trafalgar Coach tour spots than big party spots in Europe. Which I am fine with - it must be a sign of age that I almost prefer to avoid the parties!
And Fussen is definitely a old tourist's kind of place, much like Salzburg and Cesky Krumlov - I think I'm definitely in old tourist territory as all my hostels and destinations since leaving Warsaw have been full of older, Asian tourists. Around here, pretty rules over party.

And after ten years of travelling, for the first time ever, I was sharing a dorm with kids. And I don't mean teenagers, I mean actual kids - an entire Chinese family with three kids under the age of 10 plus grandma had moved into my eight bed dorm.
They didn't seem to be aware of dorm etiquette either and carried on as if it were their own room; the kids wouldn't stop climbing all over the bunks and jumping up and down,

Fussen

Old town square where some horn players were entertaining passersby.

they would be talking loudly and the lights kept on going on and off, much to the annoyance of the old Japanese man who was also sharing our room. If this is what having kids is like then there's no way I'm ever having them.

They turned the lights on and started talking super-early the next morning too - but this wasn't such a bad thing as it allowed me to get away early to get to the head of the queue for what I had gone through all this trouble to visit; Neuschwanstein Castle. This had better be worth it.
But I have learnt to temper my expectations - I had heard that the castle really isn't all it's cracked up to be so I was expecting to be disappointed by this legendary, over-hyped edifice.
Because of its popularity, the woman at the hostel advised me to catch the 8.30am bus; with everyone else in the entire hostel - which was full - already checked out by the time I woke up, I thought it'd be a good idea to catch the 8.05am bus just in case.
Well, I could easily have caught the 8.30am bus - as

Marienbrucke

Bridge from where you can get you postcard picture of Neuschwanstein Castle. In the afternoon it gets so packed with tourists that a guard has to control numbers on the bridge, which results in a queue going back a hundred metres.

it turned out, I was first in the queue, the first customer of the day, so I could have my pick as to what time I wanted to tour the castle. But with a 4.35pm bus to catch later that day however, perhaps this was a good thing.

Well. I have to say that I was mightily impressed as the view of Neuschwanstein on its perch from Marienbrucke elicited an involuntary "woah" from my mouth. It is a fantastical castle but as well as being the castle that Disney based their one off, it really is all about the setting as well.
Now if you think the Disney Castle is a bit gimmicky, then you might think that the castle which inspired it is in the same boat; is no architectural pioneer nor is it historically significant.
Ludwig II, King Of Bavaria, had a dream to build the castle of castles - one which paid homage to Romanesque castles of the Middle Ages while also importing the more contemporary architectural styles of the 19th century. And you know what, I think he did it. Both on the inside and out, this is the castle you think of when reading

Singer's Hall

A concert hall that wasn't made for concerts inside Neuschwanstein.

fairy tales. The circular towers, the round, pointy turrets, the hilltop setting looking across beautifully lush forests and fields - I totally understand why the place draws thousands of visitors. It is the castle everyone dreamed about when they were kids and indeed Ludwig II himself would probably count himself in that number; only that he has made his dream come true.
I had heard that the inside is a bit of a disappointment; I don't think so. The throne room is once again, exactly what you've always thought a throne room to be like; full of gold, red carpet, an altar where the throne would sit and a magnificent, gold, Byzantine-style chandelier studded with jewels of all colours. Every wall in every room seemed to be adorned with frescoes of scenes from old legends - this is a proper castle. Perhaps the most impressive room was the singer's hall, a hall that looks like it was designed to hold concerts but was in fact just a homage to Wagner - King Ludwig II's favourite composer. You would not be surprised to hear that Ludwig II hired a stage designer rather than an architect to help design his lifetime's obsession;

Neuschwanstein From The Marienbrucke

One of many shots I took of the castle. It was a shame that there was such a long shadow cast by the hills behind that day.

and that he was declared unfit to to rule by his own government by way of insanity. Ludwig II died in mysterious circumstances a year after his deposition.

It was a beautiful day and the autumn colours were out in force making the setting even more beautiful than it already was. The Alpsee lake was blissfully clear and calm and provides a lovely stroll after visiting the castle. Schloss Hohenschwangau, Ludwig's childhood home, is also available to visit at the foot of the hill on which Neuschwanstein is perched.
Instead of doing either however, I ended up accidentally climbing a mountain.
Following a trail that I thought would get me an amazing view of the castle, the trail kept going up and up; the trail was full of hikers and the views I was getting over the castle and the landscape kept encouraging me to climb higher and higher. There were several points where I thought that I should go back - I hadn't set out to go hiking, I had the wrong shoes, I wasn't going to get the exact view of the castle I was after and I didn't want to expend too much energy climbing as

The Alpsee

From a hill above Neuschwanstein, you can look down at the nearby lake.

the further I got away, the further I would have to go to get back. I also had to keep in mind that I had to catch a bus to Innsbruck in less than three hours with potential treks between the bus stop and hostel at both ends. I couldn't resist going to the top however since I was so close; but when it became clear that this was a one-way path leading me miles away from the castle - from where I had already paid for a bus journey back to Fussen - I decided to turn back, especially after I saw that the trail started going downhill over the other side of the mountain.
Just like the start of this entry and countless times before, it was a little bit of a rush to pick up my bags from the hostel and get to the bus stop - but I ended up getting there in plenty of time.

As mentioned earlier, I've travelled to Germany many times, but this visit was just a brief one - one that has now come to an end. I now make my way back into Austria - where I will encounter