Mad King Ludwig’s Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles
japra | Jul 22, 2008 | Comments 4
Wake up early if you want to visit “Mad” King Ludwig’s castles. From Munich, they’re a little more than two hours via train and bus. Oh, and prepare yourself for the crowds, though I must admit in June they’re not horrible.
We took the 7 AM train from Munich to Fussen. That really doesn’t seem very early until you count backwards–one and a half hours to get ready (three people, one bathroom) plus about 30 minutes to get breakfast and coffee to go. So yeah, up a 5AM. We actually left our hotel by six, which was plenty of time to grab something to eat and wait for the train.
Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles are located in Germany’s Bavarian region near the Austrian/German border and snuggled right along the Alps. Here’s a link to the castles’ official website.
Hohenschwangau Castle and its beautiful surroundings. It is easy to see how King Maximilian II, Ludwig’s father, fell in love with the place.
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Hohenschwangau was built on the remains of a ruined castle. Sorry, no photography inside, but you can go here and see some of the rooms (click on the photos to enlarge a little)
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Exterior details.
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It seemed odd to me that they used blue and white striped window covers on this castle. It looked pretty, but blue and white stripes says “beach” to me… Blue and white are the colors of the Bavarian flag, so maybe that’s why.
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Too bad I can’t show you the beautiful murals inside. Here’s a sampling of the exterior work, though.
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We lucked out and had beautiful weather for this day trip. I think the castles would be beautiful even in the rain and particularly lovely in the snow.
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More mural work.
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You can make the steep hike (30 minutes to 1 hour depending on how quickly you walk) to Neuschwanstein Castle, but for a little more than 1 Euro per person, the bus will zoom you up the mountain within a five minute walk of Queen Mary’s Bridge. We took the bus up and hiked down.
Isn’t Ludwig a good son? He built this bridge as a birthday present for his mother–Marie of Prussia. I got about a fourth of the way across the bridge before I started freaking out..
Roxi took this for me. It’s looking directly down (45 metres) from the bridge. I hate heights. Plus the boards wiggled when I walked on them. And there were gaps between the boards, which meant I could see right down to the bottom of the gorge.
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From my perch one quarter of the way down the planks, I took this photo of Ludwig’s fairy tale castle, Neuschwanstein.
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Close up of the front. I wasn’t expecting that red brick.
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The top of the front. .
It certainly is romantic looking, isn’t it? Apparently the castle was designed by an artist (Christian Jank) rather than an architect. Ludwig was a big fan of the opera composer Richard Wagner, and his love for the dramatic certainly is evident in the design of this castle. And yes, this is the castle that inspired the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.
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I liked these faces along one of the sides.
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Can’t you just picture fireworks and Tinkerbell?
All in all, it was worth the trip to see these two castles. I actually liked Hohenschwangau better because it was smaller, charming, more lived in. Neuschwanstein seemed to be missing something–maybe history? After all, Ludwig II only stayed in the castle for something like 170 days. And actually, much of the castle remains unfinished since building stopped when Ludwig II was found dead in 1886 under “mysterious circumstances”. The completed rooms, however, are quite dramatic and include the throne room, the the King’s room, the singer’s hall (made for Wagner’s operas–poor Ludwig never got to see an opera there), and the kitchens (which look brand new).
Total length of visit: 6 hours
Total travel time from Munich: About 4.5 hours round trip
If you’d like to read more about our June 2008 trip to Germany and Austria, click here for an index of posts
Filed Under: Blog • Castles • Destinations • Germany • What to Do
About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in England with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 17-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
Great photos! That bridge was something…the second I saw it,before I read what you experienced, I thought, ”oh, those boards look wiggly!” I don’t know how you finished crossing, but I guess you had to! The faces on the outside of the castle reminded me so much of the faces on the four corners of the archway to my favorite university. Have you ever seen those? Mimsy
Oh, it’s been a long time since I was at Neuschwanstein. Thanks for the photos! Didn’t you love the “cave” room?! Quite eccentric fellow.
Those are some amazing photos. They look like such beautiful places to visit.
Mimsy–I didn’t make it all the way across. I tried, I really did, but it wasn’t pretty! Hahaha!!
Pamela–Eccentric is definitely the word! The grotto made me feel like I was in Disneyworld. Ludwig II would have made a great art director.
Alyson–It was fun… well, except for the getting up early part.