Neuschwantstein Castle and Bavarian Alps

This was a fun little weekend trip to the southern edge of Germany into the Bavarian Alps and to visit the fairy tale castle, Neuschwanstein. Picture from the internet. You can only get this view from climbing the mountains across from the castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein, lit. New Swan Stone palace) is a 19th-century Bavarian palace on a rugged hill near Hohenschwangau and Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat. Ludwig is sometimes referred to as Mad King Ludwig. It is quite extravagant.

Although public photography of the interior is not permitted, it is the most photographed building in Germany and is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. The palace has appeared in several movies, The Great Escape, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Space Balls and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, and was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle at both Disneyland Park and Hong Kong Disneyland.
This is an interior picture that I found on the internet.

We stayed in a cute mountain spa chalet in the town of Hopfen am See, near Fuessen. It was a small apartment so we were all together. There was also an indoor pool that the girls enjoyed.

The alps were just beautiful. I wanted to go at this time of year so I could see them covered in snow. When we arrived you could see it was snowing way up in the highest areas. When we awoke Sat. morning the fresh snow on the mountains was so beautiful.
It was super cold though. I don't like the cold but we all bundled up and had many layers on!

The bad part about fresh snow is that the shuttle buses would not be running up to the castle. We were looking forward to riding a horse carriage up to the castle, but if that is the only transport up, the lines would probably be really long.

There are actually 2 castles in this area. The first castle we toured was Hohenschwangau. This is the boyhood home of King Ludwig. It was built by his father King Maximus. This was a pretty castle.
The walk up to this castle was short and easy. We toured the castle in English with a bunch of touring Americans. It was weird to be around so many Americans. We are so used to only hearing German, that when I hear English, I tend to turn my head and stare.


After this castle we had some time to spare, so we had some hot chocolate and lunch. The carriage line was indeed super long so we decided to walk up. If you miss your tour time you are out of luck. The map said the walk up was steep and 40 minutes long. Well, It was up hill but it was OK. It did take 40 minutes, but we took our time and stopped several times for pictures.


The tour of the castle was pretty good. The king had an fancy throne room along with many other fancy rooms.

The rest of the weekend we toured around the town of Fuessen. Lily wanted a traditional Bavarian dress. It is cute. Lia said she didn't want one. I thought that was funny. They are so different. The town was cute with the pedestrian area full of shops and there was a large fortress castle on the edge of town which we did not go up to visit.
We ate dinner in this town both nights. This is one of the restaurants.


We also visited a very pretty church, the Wieskirche. The book said that it is Germany's greatest Rococo-style church. It was full of decorations and curly curlicues.




We also stopped in the little alpine town of Oberammergau. It is full of half-timbered housed that are frescoed with biblical scenes and famous fairy-tale characters. It is also known for it Passion Play that the town performs every 10 years. It is said that the townspeople made a deal with God when they were spared devastation by the Black Death several centuries ago, so they perform the all-day play for 100 days in the summer every decade. The next year is 2010, that it will happen. The tow is also know for it's woodcarving. The shops are full of all kinds of carved items, but they were super expensive!


The girls found this impressive art sculpture.


We also stopped to see the Lech Waterfall outside of Fuessen. It was pretty and the mountains behind it were so beautiful. The gorge on the other side was so pretty with the blue water.