Today's plan was to visit the two famous castles of Ludwig II of Bavaria that are situated near Fussen, Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle. Hohenschwangau Castle was completed in 1837 and became the summer residence of Ludwig’s father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. Ludwig was born at Hohenschwangau in 1845 and spent much of his childhood in the castle. On the passing of his late father, Ludwig commissioned the construction of a New Hohenschwangau Castle, built to a Romanesque theme, in honour of the famous composer Richard Wagner and intended it to be his private retreat. Ludwig died in 1886 in suspicious circumstances before his castle was completed, spending only 11 nights in the castle itself and it was only after Ludwig’s death that the castle was renamed to its current name, Neuschwanstein Castle, and opened to the public. Since then it’s estimated that over 61 million people have visited the castle.
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| Hohenschwangau Castle. |
We had a relatively relaxed morning and caught the bus down to Hohenschwangau just after 10am and went to buy our tickets. Now we had been organised and pre-booked a lot of the attractions we wanted to see on this trip but had forgotten that the castles had a two day maximum reservation window. However, we assumed getting there before 1030 would be early enough to buy on the day but the queues were enormous and the next available tour was listed as being at 1400 so we started to worry. A 45 minute wait later (Matthew queued and the kids chased beetles on the grass outside) and we thankfully managed to get on the last English tour of the day for Neuschwanstein at 1415. We (correctly) decided we now wouldn't fit both castles in without becoming stressed over timings so decided to forego the tour of Hohenschwangau Castle.
You can get most of the way up the 1.5km steep uphill road by either horse drawn carriage or shuttle bus but we had time so decided to walk it. We took it slow and steady and at one point before we managed to convince Paloma to go on "Daddy's shoulders" we were joking that we wouldn't make it in time for our slot! But after normal pace resumed, we stopped for lunch, did a bit more walking and then had another stop for an ice cream, arriving a perfect 10 minutes before our tour started.
The tour itself takes you around a few of the key apartments and state rooms belonging to King Ludwig II and involves a lot of stair climbing which with little Miss "I can do it" meant a delicate operation of letting her go up a few steps independently before trying to decide the perfect time to pick her up and carry her that wouldn't make her scream but also wouldn't annoy the people behind with how slow she was! The tour was quite short at only 35 minutes and I don't feel you see much of the castle but what you do see is certainly impressive with the eye for the details in everything that was made. You unfortunately aren't allowed to take photos of the interior so you'll have to take our word for it or google it! It was also interesting seeing the part of the castle they are currently restoring and I would have loved to have stopped and watched the artists working on the wall murals.
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| Neuschwanstein Castle (taken by Amber). |
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| The budding photographer at work. |
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| Neuschwanstein Castle (taken by Forrest). |
After the tour we decided to head to the Marienbrücke, a further 15 minute walk. This bridge was originally built by King Ludwig II's father as a means of crossing the Pöllat Gorge and was reworked and embellished by his son when he built his castle. It is now the perfect spot for photos of the castle. When we arrived it was very busy and we didn't feel it was safe to take Paloma on amongst all the crowds without the sling or a means to contain her so me and Forrest ventured on alone to get our shots.
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| Forrest taking a photo of Mamma. |
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| Meanwhile Paloma is posing for Daddy. |
After that we took the woodland route back to Hohenschwangau before catching the bus to Fussen for some pasta at Forrest's request and although we did manage to find probably the only Italian restaurant, Il Pescatore, without spaghetti bolognese on it's menu thankfully he was happy with linguine and tomato sauce as an alternative and the food was really very good.
Blogged by Amber.
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