No offense to Amsterdam but the fairy tale didn’t really begin until we arrived in Germany. That’s because we spent our first full day here…
…at Neuschwanstein Castle.
Apparently the design for Cinderella’s castle in Disney World was inspired by this one and can you blame her? When I have a castle, I want it to look just like that too. Some people (probably the Spanish!) claim that this castle was actually the inspiration for Cinderella’s castle. Whatever the case, I was ready to slip on a gläserne Pantoffel and move right in.
But let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Getting to the castle from Munich is not difficult per se but it does involve multiple steps, including taking a train and then transferring to a bus, all in German of course. With that in mind, we booked a day trip which included transportation, a tour of the town, and a tour of the castle.
Knowing that we had a full day ahead of us, we arrived at the train station early. Early enough to have a nice, hearty breakfast to start the day off right.
Well, what else would you expect?
From there we got comfortable on the train, ready to take in the sights and start the adventure. Riding through the countryside actually kind of reminded me of driving through Vermont. There were open fields covered in a blanket of snow, tiny cabins with swirls of smoke streaming out of the chimneys, and big, tall pine trees struggling to hold the freshly fallen snow. Apparently it snowed the day before we got there. Munich must have heard that I was coming and wanted to make the right impression. Well, it worked.
See? Just like Vermont…
…well, except for the giant castle.
Speaking of the castle, now seems as good a time as any for the history lesson. The castle was commissioned by King Ludwig II to be his personal retreat from the world and is largely influenced by his admiration for close friend, Richard Wagner. The majority of the rooms play homage to the works of Wagner through the artwork on the walls. Ludwig II was sometimes referred to as the Fairy Tale King and the design within the castle certainly reflects his eccentric sense of style. The palace was designed to be a personal refuge that would never be open to the public, or to visitors of any kind, really; however, just a couple of weeks after the King’s mysterious death (he was found dead of supposed suicide in the nearby lake along with one of his psychiatrists), the castle was opened to the public, for a fee of course. Pictures of the interior are not allowed though, so I suppose they kept some of his wishes in mind.
We arrived in the small town of Hohenschwangau and had time to grab a bite to eat and take a walk around the town, with a quick tour before making the climb up to the castle.
Isn’t it a cute, little village? The yellow building on the hilltop is actually another castle: the Hohenschwangau Castle, where King Lugwig II spent most of his childhood. It now lies in the shadow of Neuschwanstein Castle and is largely forgotten. Can you imagine? A tiny town with a superfluous castle? From here, we started the long climb to Neuschwanstein.
As mentioned before, pictures of the inside are not permitted so you’ll notice that there are only pictures of the exterior. Too many? Nein! No such thing! On the subject of pictures, all shots are courtesy of my handsome and talented companion, John. I meant to say that in the previous post, but that’s what happens when coffee is involved. My brain works faster than my fingers. Or maybe it’s the other way around?
All in all, it was a fairy tale of a day. John got to see his castle (and our future home, I’m counting on you!) and I got my winter wonderland…although maybe a little too much of it. My poor booties struggled to survive the encounter! And somehow I don’t they appreciated the promise of beers and pretzels the next day as much as I did.
Although that’s really a post for another day because, well, there were a lot of beers and pretzels…