The morning sky was nearly clear and we headed out early to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. Ours was the first car into car park #4 in the village below the castle. Yes, they need four car-parks. We were 3rd in line to buy castle tickets and caught the second bus to the top of the mountain. By the time we came down the car-parks were full and people were everywhere, and we felt sooooo smug!
Neuschwanstein
Everyone has seen a picture of this castle at some time, perhaps done a jigsaw puzzle view of it. Let's set the record straight right now. The iconic image of it, as shown on this display of posters for sale at the gift shop:
Lies, all lies.
...is a lie. Well, not exactly a lie, but not a view any of the general public will ever see. All these years we thought that this castle was about twice as high as it was wide, a little square thing all turrets. Not! What us ordinary folks get to see is the real castle, like this:
The side view.
It's a much more reasonable-looking building. The poster/jigsaw-puzzle view is taken from a rocky peak to the north, looking down on the north face of the castle, and foreshortening it to the shape of a salt-shaker.
The bus takes a load of tourists up a long, steep hill (you're welcome to walk it instead) and leaves them at a path to the Marienbrücke, Mary's Bridge, which spans a gorge behind the castle. Here's the bridge as seen from the castle.
Ludwig II's father had this built. Click for details.
Here's Marian enjoying the view.
Note how white the knuckles are?
After viewing this view, we walk downhill to the front of the castle and wait for the appointed time for our tour to start. While waiting in the castle courtyard we had another tourist take our picture.
Photos of the interior aren't allowed. This castle is not as flamboyantly decorated as Ludwig's other two on Herreninsel and Linderhof. He intended it as a tribute to the Lohengrin legend, and in particular to Wagner's operatic version of it. All the walls are painted with rather nice murals depicting scenes from the Lohengrin and Parsifal legends, and the building style and much of the decor has a medieval theme—which makes it generally plainer and sturdier-looking than the rococo style of the other palaces. Except for the throne room, which he had designed in the style of a Byzantine cathedral, with a two-thousand-pound bronze chandelier in the shape of a Byzantine crown. The throne would have sat on a dais of Carrara marble approached by six marble steps. (Ludwig II was not a man troubled by false modesty.) Alas, he was deposed and died before the throne was made, so only the dais remains.
Although we could not photograph inside, our guide didn't mind us taking pictures out the windows. Here is the castle's view of the mountain lake Alpsee just to the south.
Go on, click it!
Also, we could take a picture in the castle kitchen.
Hohenschwangau
We walked down the road from Neuschwanstein to the town below and, after a restorative snack, walked up a smaller hill to view Ludwig's father's castle, Hohenschwangau. This is how it looked in the early-morning light.
This was the summer home for the family of Maximilian II of Bavaria. (There is quite a nice family portrait of Max, his wife and two sons on wikipedia.) Ludwig spent many childhood summers here and lived here when he assumed the throne, watching the building of his new castle on a hill above with a telescope from his bedroom.
Here's the climb up from the ticket office, with Neuschwanstein looking down.
The interior of Hohenschwangau is also decorated with many murals based on Norse and Germanic legends. There are very nice original furniture pieces, and many of the over-the-top ceremonial gifts given to the Bavarian monarchs by foreign heads of state or grateful citizens: like an ivory chest decorated with diamonds and rubies where the king could "keep his laptop and ipod," to quote our jovial guide.
A word here about the efficient way the Bavarian administration handles the 1.3 million visitors who come each year to this hamlet. There is a large modern office in the town where you buy your ticket for a castle visit from a clerk who speaks English (and one suspects, Spanish, French, and a little Japanese). The ticket has a time and a number. The number is of your tour, and the time is when it starts. Outside the castle, there is a display showing when the next tours will start.
Be there or be square...
When your tour's number is active, and not a second before, you can insert your ticket in a turnstile and enter.
Won't work a minute earlier or 15 minutes later.
Your tour group forms up in a runway headed by its number, and in a minute your cheerful guide emerges and leads you off to the first room. Forty minutes later, you have seen it all and are out the back door.
Around Füssen
Coming down from Hohenschwangau we stopped for a look at the Alpsee (Lake Alp).
There was a family of swans, so appropriate in the land of the Swan Kings.
Back near Füssen we followed one of Earl's tips and viewed the Falls of the Lech, Füssen's river.
The Lech rises in the Austrian Alps and drains an immense amount of spring snow-melt. In 2005 it flooded almost to the height of this bridge, causing a lot of damage in Füssen just downstream.
Near sundown we noted the sky had cleared some from the midday overcast and we went out for a short drive, and in trying to get to the lake, got on some very small roads.
Road, or bike path? We weren't really sure.
Hohenschwangau low on the right, Neuschwanstein dead center, some modern thing lower left.
And returning, spotted a sunset and drove frantically through narrow streets to find a clear view of it.
End of a very successful day.
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