This is it, the one and only... Neuschwanstein! Germany's most famous castle! One of the country's most wildly popular tourist magnets, Neuschwanstein is just 2 hours by train outside of Munich. So, early on my last day in Munich during my post-Christmas trip last month, I hopped on a Deutsche Bahn train headed for the castle.
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| What I would eventually see later that day - the front of Neuschwanstein Castle! |
Dutifully following Rick Steves' advice to get to the castle early, I woke up at the crack of dawn and made sure to take one of the day's first trains to my destination. I later found out that, due to the snowy weather, the next Neuschwanstein-bound train immediately after my train was not able to leave until over three hours after mine. Rick Steves saved my Neuschwanstein trip! However, even my early train was not unaffected. Halfway to the castle, the train stopped and the train driver announced that due to the cold weather, the train could drive no further. He announced this all in German, without bothering to translate in English, so my German skills came in handy there. My fellow passengers (who were almost all Asian tourists) and I were herded onto buses that would took us along the rest of the route. Before I got onto the bus, I tried asking the train conductor in German what the problem was. He answered, in German, while gesturing outside at the falling snow: "It's cold! Not good for the train." While I was proud I was surviving the wintry weather better than Deutsche Bahn was, this was my first indicator that anything to do with any form of transportation that day would be an absolute nightmare.
But anyway, I made it to the tiny village of Hohenschwangau, which plays host to two of the "Mad" King Ludwig II's four castles (one being Neuschwanstein), and headed for the extremely crowded ticket office. Man, at 12 euros a piece, these are some expensive castles. But I had enough time to see both and shelled out for the combo ticket, which saved me a whopping one euro.
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| My first look at Neuschwanstein. Ok, not technically my first - I had previously visited the castle on my first Europe trip in 2009. But I don't remember too much of it and I didn't any fantastic pictures, so I returned to fix that |
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| But first, a tour of the smaller of the two castles, Hohenschwangau, which is located on a hill right next to Neuschwanstein |
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| I took the scenic route up to the castle |
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| It was super cold |
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| You could ride in a horse carriage up the hill to the castle if you were not in a walking mood, and if you were in a pay-5-extra-euros mood |
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| The entrance to Hohenschwangau Castle. There has been a castle on this site since at least the 12th century, but it was rebuilt in 1535. The Wittelsbach family, Bavaria's long-time ruling family that I mentioned in my last post, acquired it later in the 1500s and remodeled it in the 1800s (after Napoleon had destroyed it) |
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Inside Hohenschwangau Castle I went! And just my luck... no pictures allowed. Great. You'll just have to trust me when I say it was pretty neat seeing the original furnishings from the 1800s. The Mad King, Ludwig II, spent most of his life here. He was a huge fan of Richard Wagner, and Wagner hung out here with the king. Inside, we saw a piano Wagner used to play for his devoted patron. Other interesting details were fun to see, too: doors to a secret passageway that connected the King's and Queen's bedrooms, for instance, or a giant wall mural that displayed an intense and deadly battle between two warring armies but not one drop of blood. That's Romanticism for you. One of my favorite parts - under a display case, they even had an original loaf of bread from 123 years ago! But it did not look very appetizing.
Other things I learned on my brief but informative tour: Hohenschwangau, which means "High Land of the Swan" (one of the family's main symbols was a swan), was a private residence that was hardly ever used for ceremonies or receptions. Although the state of Bavaria owns Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau Castle is still privately owned by the Wittelsbach family. What does the Wittelsbach family do these days, you ask? Well, remember Nymphenburg Palace from my last post? That's theirs, too. The head of the family still lives in a private wing there. All other members of the very large family have completely normal jobs.
With the conclusion of my Hohenschwangau tour, it was time to hike over to the big highlight - Neuschwanstein.
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| The tiny village between the castles |
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| One last look at Hohenschwangau Castle |
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| Hm, I could have sworn I saw a castle there earlier.... (visibility was getting really bad, which annoyed me because it impacted my ability to take nice pictures) |
After a brisk 45-minute uphill hike, I was there! Neuschwanstein Castle! So how did this enormous place get here? Well, the "Mad" King Ludwig II ascended the Bavarian throne at the age of 18 in 1864. But he was never really was in the mood for politics. Instead of spending his time politicking in Munich, he liked to relax here in the countryside, mostly in Hohenschwangau Castle, dreaming up big new castles to build. One of the castles he thought up was, of course, Neuschwanstein. In 1868, he wrote to his friend Richard Wagner that he wanted to create Neuschwanstein as a medieval-style castle and personal refuge. To this end, Ludwig had an old, historically significant castle on a hill next to Hohenschwangau Castle demolished, and work on Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone) began in 1869. The result that we see today shows how far removed the 1800s were from the Middle Ages, as Neuschwanstein is in no way what a genuine medieval castle would have looked like. But it does look pretty fantastic, doesn't it? That's because the initial design for the exterior of the castle was drawn up not by an architect, but by an artist who also worked as a stage set designer. The final design that survives today is so sensational that the castle served as a source of inspiration for Walt Disney and his team of designers when they were coming up with designs for the Sleeping Beauty Castle.
If Ludwig had had his way, though, the castle would be even more complex - he wanted a central chapel, more towers, a huge view terrace, an ornate bathhouse, and more added on. He also wanted to build yet ANOTHER castle on an even more rugged and prominent hill, but that never came to be.
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| The tourist entrance. Even though it was the dead of winter, the crowds were insane. Tickets for tours sold out in the early afternoon. Like I said, it's one of Germany's most famous landmarks. More than 1.3 million people visit it every year |
After thoroughly photographing the outside of the castle, it was time for my tour of the inside. No photos allowed, again. But it was all still very interesting and memorable. Once the exterior of the castle was completed in 1886, Ludwig II moved had the interior painted with countless motifs from a variety of different Wagner operas. So almost all of the wall surfaces inside are heavily painted. The king's bedroom is so elaborate that it took 14 wood carvers 4 1/2 years to finish. His throne room has a 2-million tile mosaic. And, of course, there are swan symbols and statues absolutely everywhere inside. He had running water and a telephone installed, as well.
Despite all this luxury, the interior was not even finished. Ludwig had already moved in to his new castle in 1886 even though several floors were still empty. But that same year, 172 days after he moved into his fantasy home, he was declared mentally unfit to rule and removed from the castle. All those years of irresponsibly neglecting his state duties and using borrowed money for his personal castles had finally caught up to him. Two days after this forced eviction, he was found dead in the shallow waters of a lake, although he was a strong swimmer and no water was found in his lungs. The mysterious circumstances around his death fuel debate even today - did he drown, commit suicide, or get murdered? We may never know. What we do know, though, was that 6 weeks after his death, his newest castle was already open for public tours.
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| My tours of both castles were done, but I was not ready to head back to Munich yet. I knew that if I hiked out to the bridge pictured above, I'd get an amazing view of the entire castle. Off I went! The path to the bridge is blocked off during the winter, but I climbed around the barrier just like everyone else. I lived to tell about it |
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| It was on this side of the castle that Ludwig II still wanted a large terrace to be built |
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| Climbing away from the castle and up into the hills |
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| I had been looking forward to this specific view from this specific bridge the moment I had booked my tickets for Munich since it would make for amazing pictures. So, now that I finally made it, OF COURSE visibility was awful |
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| Wait... it's a miracle! I waited for about 25 minutes and watched as the fog and snow briefly cleared before my eyes. I'm so happy the weather cooperated! Shot of the day, right here |
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| What a sight! |
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| Lots of others wanted that view too |
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| Time to head back into town |
Satisfied with my experience at the two castles, I hopped on an extremely crowded bus to the train station, where I would catch a train back to Munich.
JUST KIDDING. Remember I mentioned transportation turned out to be a mess? Well, I arrived at the train station where I hoped to catch my 2-hour train back into Munich and quickly found out that all trains for the next several hours were canceled. Perfect. It was absolutely essential that I get back to Munich before the day was out, though, since I had a 10 p.m. bus back to Berlin. I started getting really worried, and took a seat and prayed that the train wouldn't be delayed too long. I also mulled over the ill-preparedness of Deutsche Bahn, the German train operator. How can you possibly have a train system in Germany that is not snow- and winter-proof? Come on. Things were not looking good as darkness fell. Time was running out.
But suddenly... another miracle! A random bus driver popped into the train station and announced that Deutsche Bahn had sent him to drive us to a train station where trains were actually running to and from Munich. Thank God! The Miracle Bus Driver stuck to his word, and an hour and a half later I was finally on a functioning train back to Munich.
Then it was time to catch my bus back to Berlin. Good thing I was on time at the outdoor bus station... because our bus was nowhere in sight. It was 10 p.m., and we were waiting outside in the freezing cold for a bus that we were doubting more and more would come at all. One hour turned into two. And then miraculously, not one but two Berlin-bound buses showed up, caked in ice but functional. My transportation horrors were over, and I made it back to Berlin before 2015.
Aside from the transportation troubles, my day was fantastic, just like my other days in Munich! And I have the awesome pictures to prove it. Just a few days later after my return to Berlin, I rang in the New Year, then immediately after that it was off to Vilnius, Lithuania with Tony. Those pictures are up next! It might be a short while before those are posted, though - this week, I head to Frankfurt for a week-long seminar with my fellow exchange program participants. I also am taking a short side trip to Nuremberg on the way back. So there is, as usual, lots of excitement happening. But more excitement means less blogging. Either way, back with more soon!
