Schwangau, Germany – September 27, 2012

Today is Stephanie and my Anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to Us

As forecast, it rained during the night, and some in the morning. We could see blue sly off in the distance, but then it would disappear, and we would get more rain.  It was also about 41 degrees, so sort of a cold and rainy morning so far.

We did some clothes washing last night after returning from dinner, hoping that with the heat running, the clothes will dry before we leave tomorrow morning to head for our next stop in Oberammergau, which is only about a 45 minute drive away.

We waited until the skies started to clear at about 9:30 AM before we headed over to the castles.  After the rainy night and morning, it appeared that the remainder of the day would be sunny.  Unfortunately, we were wrong.  However, it was nice for about 2 hours, enough time to get to the castles and actually tour the Hohenschwangau Castle with the sun shining, but unfortunately, the sun had disappeared by the time we arrived at the Neuschwanstein Castle.

It actually was very sunny once we waited in line about 20 minutes to get our tickets.  We did the dual castle pass, and with that, we saved a whopping 2.00 euros.  The negative was that we had to tour the Hohenschwangau Castle first, and then wait about 2 hours later for the Neuschwanstein Castle.  The actual tours last about 35 minutes, but getting from one castle to the other is a little bit of a time consuming venture. It is the responsibility of the person going on the tours, us, to get to the castles, either by walking, riding a horse drawn carriage, or taking a bus, the last two being an extra costs to the actual entry fees we already paid.

The Hohenschwangau Castle is lower, so it is an easy walk to get to it, but the Neuschwanstein Castle is quite higher in elevation, and is a tough 30-35 minute walk from the bottom area where you park and purchase the tickets.

We climbed up to the Hohenschwangau Castle in about 10 minutes, and took some photos from the area outside as we waited for our tour time.  All of the tours in both castles are guided, and are all set to start at a certain time, and they are limited in size.  The inside of the Hohenschwangau Castle was not that spectacular, I guess one has to remember that this castle was only a summer residence, and not intended to be large or lavish, only a place for the royal family to get away. The rooms were not that lavish, nor were they even that large.  Our guide informed us that they did not hold any royal functions there, those were reserved for the castle in Munich.

Once we completed the tour of the Hohenschwangau Castle, we headed back down and passed by the crystal clear Alpsee Lake that was nearby.  The water was deep and the color of a bluish green.

Afterward we headed over to the bus station to purchase a one way bus ride to the top to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.  We waited about 15 minutes for the bus, and they really loaded the passengers on for the ride to the top.  The advantage of the bus was that it took you to a higher point, which was close to the Marienbrucke Bridge.  The bridge is one of the best vantage points to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.

We climbed up from the bus stop to the bridge, which spans over a large stream, and it quite high in elevation.  The photos would have been great, had the sun stayed out, and if there had not been a tremendous amount of scaffolding on the castle.  We already knew about the scaffolding, since there have been restoration efforts going on for several years,  What we did not know was that the scaffolding was on some of the most visible parts of the castle, including some of the higher towers.  Most of the scaffolding was on one side and one end, but the scaffolding on the higher tower was so much more visible.

Oh well, such is the case for a lot of older sights in Europe, they are constantly under restoration.

The tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle was much better than the other tour, the castle was spectacular inside.  The other thing that was amazing was that the castle was under construction for about 18 years, but only one floor was really ever completely furnished.  However, once we saw what it took to decorate the interior, it was understandable.  There were so many wood carvings, some of the ones in the King’s Bedroom took a group of 4 carvers several years to complete, just for that one room.  The carvings over the bed were just fantastic.  Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside, so we can’t share the wonders.

The tour was completed in about 35 minutes, and we walked through the gift shop, and then through the kitchen, not on the official tour.  There was one balcony where we could take some photos of the Marienbrucke Bridge and the waterfall and creek it spans.

We then headed down the walkway to the bottom, stopping for some more photos outside the castle.  The walk down on the walking path was farther than we thought, and it takes a different route up and down the mountain than the bus route.  On the way down, we passed by a Hofbräuhaus restaurant, which is the same beer company as the one we had visited in Munich two years ago.

We were hungry for lunch since it was about 3:00 PM.  We had not had time for lunch since it took so long for us to go from one castle to the other, and then take the tour.  We had some really good German food there, and one beer a piece since we had to drive home, and the alcohol limits are amazingly low for DUI in Germany, something like 0.03%.

We walked the remainder of the path to the bottom.  By this time it was really cloudy and cool, and looked like it was going to rain at anytime.  We decided to just head back to the apartment, and enjoy the rest of the evening having our cheese and crackers we had bought from the grocery store yesterday.  We were not back long before it started to rain again.  It was sort of amazing how the weather had changed from rain to sunshine and then back to rain again.

We did some more laundry, trying to get ahead of it while we had time, and had a place for the clothes to hang and dry.  It was cool enough where we could use the hot water radiator heaters to help dry the clothes.

Tomorrow, we hope to have more sunshine.  If we do, we will probably first head back to try and get some better photos at the Neuschwanstein Castle and surrounding area before we head over to Oberammergau, Germany, which is only about 45 km away.