Day 13: Fussen Day 2:

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Well, today marks the end of our Romantic Road, or "Ende der romantischen Strasse" as the sign reads, portion of our vacation. We went to sleep last night, pleased that we were the only ones in our 6-bed dorm room, but were awaken sometime after 11pm by someone trying to open the door, that we'd locked from the inside. Apparently, a couple had either just checked in, that late, or left nothing in the room earlier and finally came back. We wanted to be up and at the ticket center for the castles by 7:30am, so we had to be very quiet, and imaginative getting ready to leave.

We arrived with our car at the parking area near the ticket center just before 7:30, being only the second car to enter the lot. There were however a number of people in line at the ticket counter already, as there were other parking lots and other ways to get there. We had no problem getting one of, if not the first English tour for the Hohenschwangau Castle at 9:50, and Neuschwanstein Castle at 11:55. Since it was only 8am, we decided to walk up to the Hohenschwangau Castle ahead of time, just to check it out and know how long it would take later. It was supposed to be a 20-minute walk, but we took less than 10. After getting familiar with the layout, using the restrooms, and taking a few photos without crowds, we walked back down to the staging area to check out the souvenir shops, which were now opening. I didn't see any interesting thimbles and figured I'd wait and see what they had in the castle souvenir shops.

Around 9:30, we walked back up to the Hohenschwangau Castle to take our tour in English. I should interject a bit of history here. Hohenschwangau Castle was built by Ludwig II's father, Maxmillian II, as a summer residence on the shores of Lake Alpsee. Ludwig grew up here and when he became king, he decided to build his own fairy tale castle, closer in appearance to the castles of medieval times. Hence, Neuschwanstein Castle was built. Unfortunately King Ludwig II died in 1886, at the age 40, before his dream castle was finished. Being the last of his line, no royalty ever lived in Neuschwanstein, and the ground floor was never completely finished. Oh, and on a side note, this castle may be the only one that has a throne room, but never had a throne.

Even though Hohenschwangau Castle isn't the fairy tale castle, it is completely furnished, with original furniture and decorations. In my opinion, it's tour is more fascinating and enjoyable than Neuschwanstein, but Neuschwanstein is much prettier to behold from the outside. Our tour guide spoke decent English, although I think she had a fairly heavy accent, and the tour group was only about 20 people. I can't show you photos of either castle on the inside, since they don't allow any photos or videos. Leave it to say, both castles are well worth the time and money to see. Oh, by the way, each castle tour normally cost 15 Euros, and you can get both tickets for 25. We had a discount coupon from the hostel, so we paid 23 Euros each. Parking is another 6.50 Euros. You can take a bus from Fussen, but it costs 2.30 Euros each way, so unless you're alone, it's cheaper to drive and park there.

Our tour of Hohenschwangau was over by around 10:30, so again we walked up to Neuschwanstein to check it out, eventhough we had almost an hour and half until our tour. By this point it had started to rain off and on, so it was as pleasant as it could have been, and sometimes our photos didn't come out well. This time the walk to Neuschwanstein was supposed to be about 40 minutes, and that is about how long it took us. This walk is not for the feeble, as it is continuously uphill and long. If you aren't in for a climb, I'd recommend either the horse and carriage ride, or the shuttle bus. This time, the tour leader spoke English with less accent, and we were all given audio devices that let us all hear her well. On the down side, there were probably almost 50 people on this tour and the rooms got rather crowded at times. There are some excellent rooms and neat furnishings in Neuschwanstein, just not on the scale of Hohenschwangau. The guide explained a lot about the paintings and other things, many of which were wedding or birthday present for King Ludwig II. Although it might not have been as cool inside as Hohenschwangau, it was again well worth the time and expense. I did find a pretty cool thimble in their souvenir shop.

After the castle tour, we started back down to the parking and ticket area, but since it was around 1pm by now and we were getting hungry, we decided to stop at Schlossrestaurant Neuschwanstein after checking out there English menu. Manoli ordered a potato soup which she said was delicious, and I ordered a pork dish with sauerkraut and a dumpling which was outstanding. With a coffee, the bill came to about 21 Euros. After lunch we walked back to our car, and paid our 6.50 Euros parking at the machine (you can use credit cards too), and returned to the hostel. After resting a while, we went back out for a walk around town before dinner at the hostel and retiring. Again, we bought some assorted goodies at the REWE supermarket, including caramel creme pudding, a delicious cheese, and some bread.

Tomorrow we leave Germany behind and head to Innsbruck in Austria. Let's see how the road there is. My research showed there to be a lot of things to see and do in Innsbruck, and we'll only be there two days. Auf Wiedersehen!

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Comments

[Rich Hardin]

Have fun!
Glad to see that you are having a great time. We really liked Ludwig's castles during our trip through Bavaria and know you are enjoying it as well.

[D MJ Binkley]

Great architecture
Nice