Schloss Neuschwanstein:

Ever since I was a child and my aunt brought me a poster of Neuschwanstein from Germany, I have wanted to go there and see the fairy tale castle. On Saturday, I was able to fulfill this wish. It was quite the travel itenerary to get there, because it is in a very out-of-the-way location. [Here, but low-res] In each direction it took a S-bahn, an ICE (fast) train, a large local train, then a small local train, a bus ride, and (for us) a 5 km walk. (We could have taken a bus this last leg, but at tourist rates. The walk was along a nice bike trail) However, all the transfers were smooth and it took only 4 hours each way.

Neuschwanstein from Marienbrücke (bridge)

We (for the most part) lucked out on the weather. It was raining right before we got there, and it began raining while we were walking back to Füssen (to catch the bus home), but in between it was nice and the sun even came out hazily from time to time. When we got there, we purchased our tickets for the interior tour (a relative bargain at 8€ for the student rate) and then hiked up the hill the castle is situated on.

View from the castle up the gorge

One thing that is not evident in most of the pictures is the sheer ruggedness of the mountian right behind it--most pictures are taken from this direction pointing away from the mountain. The view from the castle this way is several hundred feet of sheer granite cliff. There is also a bridge (Marienbrücke) crossing the gorge with amazing views.

Front facade

The tour inside the castle was amazing, but no photos were allowed so I will attempt to paint a picture with words. Most of the interior was richly decorated with dark, ornate carved wood trim, muted reds, greens, and blues, and paintings of scenes from Richard Wagner's operas. King Ludwig and Wagner were good friends, and the whole interior of the castle is dedicated to the fairy tales of Wagners operas. It was said that Ludwig (mentally insane by the time he died) was trying to create his own fairy tale world within the castle. The paintings on the walls throughout the castle are lucious and colorful, depicting vivid scenes. The throne room was in the Byzantine style, with an abundance of gold, the heavens painted on the ceiling above, a huge chandelier, and a 10 million piece mosiac for a floor. His private chambers were medieval style, with even more ornate wooden trim all around and on his bed. Then there was an artifical cave leading from his room, and the singers hall, which took the entire top floor of the castle and was decorated with marble and rich colors. Absolutely amazing.

Inside the castle courtyard

View from above. Neuschwanstein is just behind the shoulder of the mountain, level with my head.

After the tour, we hiked up the mountain (Hohenschwangau) right behind the castle quite a ways. It got beautifully rugged towards the top, and (even better) we left all the tourists behind. A couple of us got up about 2500 feet above the town which got us some very good views of the castle (practically on top of it!) and the surrounding lakes.

Schloss Neuschwanstein (lower right) and surroundings

It was an amazing hike and a good chance to see some of the Bavarian alps. After we decended, we made tracks back to Füssen and did the 4-hour journey in reverse. You meet alot of interesting people on the trains around Europe. On one leg coming back I chatted with a lawyer from Australia for while, on another with a german guy who goes around the world designing opera sets. Very interesting.

View to the south into the alps. Germany on the left, Austria on the right.

To round off the day, we pulled into Stuttgart right as the world cup game was ending... Germany was playing Portugal for third place and ended up solidly beating them 3-1. Since the fan fest was only a couple hundred meters from the train station, we walked on through the throngs of thousands of exuberant German fans. It was quite the experience... Hosting the World Cup has really united Germany with national pride that has not been present since before the world wars, if ever.

All in all it was an 18 hour day of solid travel, walking, and seeing things. Doesn't get much better than that...