Bavaria Trip Report Day 8: Neuschwanstein/Hohen Schwangau Castles

DAY 8, 19 April 2019, Friday (Good Friday):

The Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most visited castles in Germany and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. This fairytale look of the Neuschwanstein castle inspired Walt Disney to create the Magic Kingdom. Every year over 1.300.000 people cross its gate.

The castle is located in Bavaria, near the town of Fussen. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, also known as the “Fairytale King”. Neuschwanstein is a castle of the paradox, it was built in the 19th century in Bavaria, in a time when castles no longer had strategical and defensive purposes. Neuschwanstein’s positioning is also a fairytale one. It is located in the Alps in Bavaria,  in a magnificent landscape, on the top of a hill. Neuschwanstein overlooks the Hohenschwangau valley.

The other famous castle in the vicinity is Hohenschwangau Castle which preceded Neuschwanstein

Hohenschwangau Castle was built by Ludwig II's father, Maxmillian II, as a summer residence on the shores of Lake Alpsee. Ludwig grew up here and when he became king, he decided to build his own fairy tale castle, closer in appearance to the castles of medieval times. Hence, Neuschwanstein Castle was built. 

Both these castles are hugely popular and it's best to reserve time slots to visit them. 
http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/tourist/admiss.htm
We did so months ahead and got slot 9,50 for Hohenschwangau Castle and 11.55  Neuschwanstein. Reserved tickets for the palace tours have to be picked up at the ticket office at least an hour before the tour

Parking is in one of the designated areas at Hohenschwangau, We drove up 5 minutes from our hotel and parked. Ticket counter was already open and a huge line of people without reservation were queueing for that day's tickets. There was a line for picking the reserved tickets too. We had our Partner 14 day pass which included  Neuschwanstein but we had to pay for Hohenschwangau and the museum. We paid up Hohenschwangau €13, Museum €11, reservation fee €2,50 each person per castle.

Hohenschwangu Castle:

We can see Hohenschwangau right from that spot, we started walking up the hill toward it. 

Horse drawn carriages can take one up... however, quite easy to walk up to Hohenschwangu castle

Snow capped mountains behind the turquoise blue Alpsee and the castle towering over us...

Here's a map with all targets circled in blue:

 Could see the Alpsee below and snow peaked mountains. 

The palace garden is pretty with fountains. The swan was a heraldic animal of the Schwangau Knights and the King incorporated it in almost every ornamentation of the castle: from the impressive silver chandelier adorned with swans to spectacular scenes of the swan knight Lohengrin that decorate the room known as the Hall of the Swan Knight. .

We scanned our tickets at the turnstile and joined our tour guide. It was pretty good...the group was relatively small and we could see what the guide was talking about. In Neuswanstein castle, the group was huge and covered the entire room. We could see only our corner, when the guide moved on, if we lingered to see what we had missed, we missed the next room too... also the next group would already fill this room... it was like a fast factory line!! 

 Interior walls and ceilings are painted with scenes from German folklore and medieval legends. Even though Hohenschwangau Castle isn't the fairy tale castle, it is completely furnished, with original furniture and decorations.

No pics allowed inside the castles or museum... such a pity

here are some pics from the net...

After the tour we could have lingered on with the next group. It was like a factory line... each room getting filled with another group when the previous one was leaving. We had our slot in Neuswanstein, so we got out 

and started following signs.

It is a long steep walk up the hill to the Neuswanstein castle and it's best to take a bus. 

Neuschwanstein Castle:

Neuschwanstein Castle can be reached by shuttle bus , horse-drawn carriage or on foot .

Bus to Neuschwanstein Castle:

Valley station: at the Alpseeparkplatz P4 (below Hohenschwangau Castle)

Mountain station: Marienbrücke

Prices per person:
Ascent: € 2.50 Descent: € 1.50; Ascent and descent: € 3.00

Bus tickets can be purchased at the bus terminal, which is located at the bus stops   The bus does not go directly to Neuschwanstein Castle. It is only a 5-minute walk from the Marienbrücke stop to the viewpoint Marienbrücke, or a 15-minute walk downhill directly to Neuschwanstein Castle

We came back to the parking lot, bus stop is near. We had to buy the tickets for the bus and then board the bus. There were huge crowds, at a point in time we were worried we will not make it on time to our slot. But we did. we had quite a bit of time to wait when we reached the castle. We put our bag and jackets in the locker, asked the girl where we should show our pass. We had a separate entrance... those with tickets had another. We got in and enjoyed the tour. 

King Ludwig was a great admirer and supporter of Richard Wagner, the world-renowned composer. Neuschwanstein Castle was built in his honor and many rooms in the castle’s interior were inspired by Wagner’s characters. Neuschwanstein means “New Swan Castle” referencing of “the Swan Knight” one of the Wagner’s characters.

It even has an artificial cave. Though only 14 rooms were finished before Ludiwg II’s sudden death in 1886, these rooms were majestically decorated.

The third floor particularly reflects Ludwig’s admiration of Wagner’s operas. The Singers Hall, which occupies the entire fourth floor of Neuschwanstein also contains characters from Wagner’s operas. Couple of pics from the net...

The two story throne room was designed in Byzantine style, with wall paintings depicting angels.  never had a throne though.

King Ludwig II died in 1886, at the age 40, before his dream castle was finished. Being the last of his line, no royalty ever lived in Neuschwanstein, and the ground floor was never completely finished. 

Marienbrucke:

Then we went to Marienbrucke (Queen Mary's Bridge). It passes 90 m (295 ft) over the Pöllat river and offers unparalleled views of Neuschwanstein Castle

There were huge crowds and we waited for 30 min to get on the bridge. the view was pretty though.

Then we caught the bus, again huge crowds. Came down to the base.

went to Alpsee, enjoyed the ambience.

We visited the museum... lot of lovely artefacts. Again no pics allowed. 

Here's a short account of Ludwig II

Ludwig was the son of Maximillian II. Ludwig had a solitary childhood, he referred to his mother as "my predecessor's consort". but he did have one good friend, his cousin, Duchess Elizabeth of Bavaria. The two shared a love of nature, poetry, and riding, and referred to each other as “Eagle” and “Dove.” Elizabeth would go on to become Empress of Austria (We saw her images and learnt all about her tragic life when we visited the palaces in Austria... covered in other posts)

Maximillian II died in 1864, leaving Ludwig II in control of Bavaria. Ludwig was only 18 years old and had little interest in matters of politics or statecraft. His first order of business was to establish a new Court Theater. He had seen one of Richard Wagner's operas when he was 15 and had become a huge admirer.

Ludwig became Wagner’s greatest patron, giving the composer a home base in Munich. However, the Münchners were scandalized by Wagner’s extravagant lifestyle and chased him out of town. Ludwig considered abdicating out of artistic principle, but Wagner talked him out of it.

Ludwig continued to lend financial support to the exiled composer and even built him a house in Switzerland where he could stay until he was able to return to Munich . 

Ludwig was a committed patron of the arts. In addition to his support of Wagner, he was instrumental in bringing the works of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Mozart to Munich. Ludwig’s enduring legacy is his building projects, though they were mostly for his own enjoyment. In addition to the opera house and mansion he built specifically for Wagner, Ludwig built, or had begun construction on, five castle palaces.  

 Ludwig paid for Neuschwanstein, as well as his other projects, with his own private income, but as the costs escalated, he began to seek out loans. He even sought a loan from the Bavarian government, which declined the request. He was broodingly handsome and frequently rode the countryside in disguise, giving gifts and large sums of money to the kindlier and more hospitable farmers he met along the way. Ludwig’s personal debt reached more than 14 million marks, his creditors sought to seize possession of his castle. In response, Ludwig threatened to kill himself.

With Ludwig ignoring not only his own impossible financial situation but also all matters in state to devote himself full-time to his building projects, his ministers began taking steps to remove him from the throne. 

Ludwig was declared mad, the ministers sent a commission to arrest Ludwig and place him in the custody of Dr. Von Gudden. Ludwig holed up in Neuschwanstein with a private army for two days while 36 armed guards surrounded the castle. He was finally caught trying to escape

Dr Von Gudden took Ludwig to rest at Berg Castle just south of Munich. On the evening of June 13, 1886, the two men took a walk together along the shore of Lake Starnberg. No one knows what happened next. The bodies of Ludwig and Von Gudden were found that night floating in the lake. Neither had water in their lungs, but Von Gudden’s body showed signs of strangulation and bludgeoning. The mystery has never been solved, though modern historians suggest that Ludwig and his doctor may have been murdered by Ludwig’s enemies.

So that's the tragic story of Ludwig II.  

Old Town Fussen:

After our museum visit, we drove back to our hotel in Fussen. In the evening son went for a walk around Fussen, said it is a lovely town. It has its own castle and a lovely church too. 

Church

On the whole it has been an enjoyable day. 

Some thoughts on what could have made it a better experience...We don't get why we can't just buy tickets online and use online printouts. Would save a lot of time for the castle staff as well as us.
We would have wanted to go up to Marienbrucke at 8 am when we arrived... no private vehicles allowed, with time slots fixed, it'll be a tough ask to take a bus and back. 
They can at least make some pics available online for recording our memory! Linderhof official site has great pics and descriptions

Anyway, It's what it is!

Here's a video link for Neuschwanstein/Hohen Schwangau Castles:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SSKa4q8SqzGDAYtKA

We had a lovely drive in the Bavaria area next day before we reached Munich. Report is here:

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2019/05/bavaria-trip-report-day-9-wieskirche.html