Germany – Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau – May 31st

After eating a good breakfast at our gasthof we drove the remainder of the way to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles.

We toured both castles, and both were absolutely amazing.  We first toured the Hohenschwangau castle, which is the castle that King Ludwig II grew up in.  He lived in that castle while the Neuschwanstein castle was being built.  He had a telescope set up in his bedroom so that he could watch the progress.

The Hohenschwangau castle was stunning.  The entire castle is decorated in the medieval style.  The walls were completely covered with murals depicting typical events in the life of a Knight or Lady.  We thought it was interesting that the King’s rooms had a small stairway leading to the Queen’s bedroom, and also had a small bathroom.  When King Ludwig II was king, he had to room’s ceiling painted like the night sky and had holes  made in the ceiling.  Then, lamps would be placed on the floor above to illuminate the “stars.”  I thought it was awesome!  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside (except looking out the windows), so here are some from outside:

The view from inside the castle

A quick picture before they asked camera to be turned off

A gift to the Prince Regent Leopold on his 90th birthday

After completing the tour of Hohenschwangau, we walked out towards the lake and then made the hike up the hill towards the Neuschwanstein castle.  There were horse-drawn carriages bring people up, and we definitely were walking faster than they were.    

The beautiful forest surrounding the castle

The Neuschwanstein castle is incredibly large, and was never completed.  King Ledwig II (whom some people considered crazy) died/was murdered (they aren’t sure…) and as soon as he died all construction was indefinitely halted.  Some think that he was murdered so that King Ledwig II would some financially ruining the country. 

The nasty fly covered horse poop everywhere on the walk up - nasty!

Side view of Neuschwanstein

Front view

View from the front of Neuschwanstein

The inner courtyard

View from inner courtyard looking toward the front of the castle

King Ledwig II was obsessed with theater and his castle was covered in paintings from the various plays and operas.  There was one room which was dedicated to his favorite opera.  Once he was banished from the theater (supposedly because he was crazy) he would spent much of his time in that room and would “watch” the play from there.  One of my favorite rooms led off of that room, and it was a hallway that was made to look like a cave.  It had rock and stalactites and stalagmites everywhere.  It was our kind of room! Some people say he was crazy for doing stuff like that…I just say he was awesome!

View of bridge from the "Singing Room" 

Secret photos taken in the throne room

I love the style of the throne room!  So pretty.

The massive golden throne was actually never finished from the throne room

While we were in the final room of the tour of the Neuschwanstein castle we heard a helicopter and could see from the windows that it was doing a rescue mission by the bridge across from the castle.  Totally freaked me out…I thought a little kid had fallen off of the bridge or something.  We found out that it wasn’t someone who fell from the bridge, however, but someone who (most likely) hiked around and tried to take a picture and fell a ways.  I don’t know what ended up happening to the person.  I hope they were okay!

After leaving the castle we headed up to the bridge mentioned above and also walked down to the waterfall.  King Ledwig II was a big fan of the outdoors, and I completely understand.  It was so incredibly beautiful there. 

No wonder he wasn't happy with just one castle in this beautiful area

Waterfall behind Neuschwanstein

The view of Neuschwanstein from the bridge

I love the greenery here.  It was absolutely stunning!

We bought our first souveneirs at this point – a purse for me, a little teddy bear in lederhosen for Emily and a wooden Neuschwanstein sword for Danny.  Kenneth didn’t want anything.  They we ate curry wurst at a little restaurant on the way to the car. 

We headed back to our gastof and ate German pancakes with cranberry jelly for dinner which was wonderful.  We were so exhausted from walking so much and decided to just relax and watch the 2^nd half of Harry Potter.  :)