Today I went to Disneyland. Well, I went to the castle that inspired the Disneyland castle. It is the Neuschwanstein castle, located near Fussen, about two hours by train from Munich. I was originally going to stay in Fussen for a few days, go see the castle and do some other hikes in the area, but it all got a bit much with lack of accommodation and transport etc. So instead I opted to stay in Munich for longer and use one of those days to do a day trip there just to see the castle. Getting there is a bit of a hassle on your own, you have to take two trains and a local bus. It used to be a bit more straight forward but there is trackwork on the train lines at the moment. I decided to take the easy route and go with the organised NewEurope tour which uses a shuttle for part of it. I was also a wee bit hungover from the beer fest the day before and didn’t want to have to think too much either.
The tour group was tiny, only six people, all American and all over 35ish. We slowly made our way to the tiny little village that sits at the bottom of the mountain the castle is on. Hopped off the bus and went and got some food, I had the bratwurstsemmel, which im growing very fond of. Just a sausage on a round roll with mustard. Did a bit of a walk around the village, ended up at the rather beautiful lake where our tour guide started to give us some history. Now its nothing against this guide in particular, but I just didn’t care what he was saying. What the guides tell you is just such watered down history its as if they’re teaching kindergarten. So I generally just go along for photos and then read about the place myself. So because the group was so small I couldn’t just hide at the back and fall asleep, I had to nod along and feign interest.
Its then about a 40 minute or so walk up the mountain to the castle. There are several ways you can take, and we took the more scenic canyon/gorge whatever you want to call it. You walk along a metal bridge that is attached to the sides of the mountain above the river, its quite cool. The river was used to generate electricity for the castle, one of the earliest buildings to have electricity. Eventually made it up to the castle, the journey was split up with several history lessons along the way so it took about twice as long as it would normally.
It was an additional 9 euros to take the tour inside the castle, it looked kinda cool so I did it along with all the others. Its rather annoying though because you aren’t allowed to take photos. Its another one of those situations where they run just so many tours so frequently that if everyone stopped to take photos it just wouldn’t work. Its a damn shame as well because inside the place is INSANE. Ludwig was a freaking nutcase, some of the things inside were just crazy stupid over the top. His bed took 14 wood carvers 4 years to make for example. His toilet was like a throne, a massive chair that was quite high and fully upholstered. I think theres some giant mystery around whether he was queer or something. Looking inside the castle he was straight up homo. The tour inside is pretty quick, only 14 rooms were ever completed, which is 1/3 I think.
After that we were given about an hour of free time to roam around and do what we wanted before the bus left. I went to Mary’s Bridge to get the postcard photo of the castle. Unfortunately the weather had turned a bit south from earlier in the day, such a shame because it was really nice and sunny earlier. Walked all the way back down to the bottom, treated myself to another bratwurstsemmel, then hopped on the bus then the train then the second train.
Aaaand I just realised I just did this entire blog without explaining basically anything about the actual history of the castle. I am the greatest travel writer that has ever existed. Don’t fear! Wikipedia is here.
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