We drove around the Zugspit (germany's highest point) and through Austria again, to get to the town of Hohenschwangau. On the hillside above this little town sits Neuschwanstein.
The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive King Ludwig II. He built the castle in order to withdrawl from public life. It was opened to the paying public immediately after his mysterious death in 1886.
On the opposite hillside is his family's Hohenschwangau Castle.
You can pay to visit both of them, but we didn't think the boys would last that long. We parked the car and got in the long line to buy some tickets. We could have skipped the line if we would have preordered our tickets online, but you can never garuntee that you'll be somewhere at a certain time when you are traveling with an infant and a toddler. We didn't think it would be busy because it was quite cold outside, but we were wrong. A tour bus full of Asain tourists had arrived just before us. The line was long, but it moved quickly. We ended up waiting about a half hour to get the tickets and another 20 minutes for the bus.
We took the bus up to the top of the hill, then hiked farther up to Mary's Bridge. This is where you come to get the best pictures of the castle. It could not have been set in a more beautiful place.
After pushing through other tourists and quickly taking pictures while no one was cutting in front of us, we headed down a dirt path to the castle. Here we saw many more breathtaking views of the Alpine foothills, lakes, and valleys.
When you buy your ticket you are given a time of your tour. They give you about an hour to get up the mountain and take pictures. If you are there early you spend a lot of time standing around and waiting. When your ticket number comes up on a big screen you get in line and file in to the castle. If you happen to space out and miss your ticket number then you are out of luck. Maddox started getting quite restless while we were waiting at the castle, so he started running circles around grandma.
Finally, our ticket numbers came up. I do not have any pictures of the inside of the castle because no photography is allowed. The tour was short compared to how big the castle is because it is mostly unfinished. These castles cost a fortune to build and when King Ludwig died construction was stopped. We visited 5 or 6 rooms including a cave room, the throne room, and his bedroom, which took 14 woodcarvers 4.5 years to create. The king's bed, dresser, sink, and even the ceiling were intricately carved out of dark wood. We also climbed many, many winding staircases. Enough to make me dizzy and my legs burn (no need for the stairmaster tonight).
Here's a picture of Mom and Maddox taken from the back of the bridge. Behind them you can see the Mary's Bridge in between the to mountains.
After the tour we were hungry, so we bought some giant pretzels. Good thing we bought two because Maddox immediately claimed one.
Instead of hiking back up the hill to the bus stop, we continued down the path and took a horse drawn carraige the rest of the way down the hill. I'm glad I was facing backwards because the path was small and there were plenty of people to dodge along the way.
We did a little shopping and I got a picture of the town's Maypole for Lesley :)
Finally, we headed back to the hotel with two tired and hungry children.
They perked up after dinner, so we went for a swim in the pool's hotel and tried out the underwater feature on our camera.
More castle pics:
We are going to this area in May!
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