Central Europe trip, Post 2: Neuschwanstein Castle

On Wednesday, December 18th, we left Prague (Czech Republic) around noon and set off on the drive to Munich (Germany). Finley slept for three hours on the drive (still a bit jetlagged!), and I used the time to study German using some apps I'd downloaded to my phone. We stopped to fuel up around 4pm and shared a Jaggerschnitzel (schnitzel with creamy mushroom sauce) and spaetzle meal inside the service station. An hour later we arrived at our destination for the next two nights: Russell and Alison's home on the outskirts of Munich! (They are friends from Australia who are living in Germany.)

We ate weiswurst and salad for dinner with Alison and their two children, Bobbie (2) and Annika (1), before going to their Wednesday night meeting with Alison. We briefly crossed paths with Russ as he arrived home from work just as we were heading out the door. The meeting was mostly in German, but we kindly received a whisper mic translation into English, so it worked very well!

The next morning, Thursday, Russ cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and then Ben, Finley and I set off on our day's excursion: visiting Neuschwanstein Castle! This is a very famous fairytale-looking castle commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 1800s. One of our reasons for wanting to visit it - apart from it being a major tourist attraction in the region - was that Ben used to have a big poster of it on his bedroom wall before we were married!

The drive to the town of Hohenschwangau should have taken about 1.5 hours, but Finley is not so keen on his carseat at times, so it took 2.5 hours. :) Here are some photos from the drive...

Approaching Neuschwanstein Castle

It's not possible to drive right up to the castle - visitors must park in the town of Hohenschwangau and then either walk or take a horse and cart up the hill to the castle. Tickets for the castle tours are sold in the visitor centre in Hohenschwangau, and we were made aware that the tours are run on an extremely strict schedule. We purchased tickets for the 3:25pm tour (€12/adult) and set about ensuring we would reach the castle in time. We waited in line for the horse and cart option, eventually made it to the front of the queue, piled in and paid the driver €6/adult, and set off up the hill to the clip-clopping of horses' hooves echoing through the wet streets.

Hohenschwangau

The other castle in town: Hohenschwangau Castle

After our 20 minute horse and cart ride, we had another 10 minutes to walk uphill before reaching the castle. The view across the surrounding snowy plains was gorgeous, and the castle up close was EXTREMELY impressive and imposing...

The method in which the tours of Neuschwanstein Castle are run is the strictest we have ever encountered in our travels and thus worth a mention! The tours are only 15 minutes long, and visitors are only allowed inside the castle's immediate vicinity a couple of minutes before their tour begins. Everyone stands around watching an electronic sign that shows which tour times are currently being admitted, and when a new number flashes up, everyone with that time rushes (sorry, proceeds in an orderly fashion) to the turnstile below the sign. The turnstile lets one person through at a time, and only after scanning their ticket to confirm their admissibility. I tried a couple minutes too early and was rejected!

Once inside, our large tour group gathered in a room and met our tour guide. He was a youngish man with a soft, high voice and a very strong accent. That, combined with the fact that our little boy was now tired and hungry again and wanted to let us know, meant that I hardly heard any of the tour commentary after all our hours of effort to get there!

It was very interesting to see inside the castle though. I particularly remember the incredibly detailed wooden carving on Ludwig's bed canopy, which fourteen carvers worked on for over four years! (And guess how many nights Ludwig slept in his castle? ...Eleven!) The castle was also equipped with state of the art technology for its time, such as flushing toilets, central heating, and telephones! However, construction of the castle was cancelled upon Ludwig's death in 1886, when only 14 of the 200+ planned rooms were complete. It remains unfinished to this day. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but this site can take you on a tour if you're interested.

After our 15 minute tour finished, we spent quite a while hanging out in the room where the tours wind up, letting Finley stretch his legs and explore. He seemed to become quite a tourist attraction himself, gaining the attention of various Japanese tourists who came and went as subsequent tours ended. They showed him toys, played with him, and even took photos of him!

All this hanging around meant that we were among the last ones to leave the castle after the day's tours had concluded. Only as we were walking out of the castle did we realise this meant we would probably not have the luxury of taking a horse and cart to the bottom! Sure enough, we had to walk down the snowy hill as darkness fell (and it was my turn to carry Finley in the wrap!). However, it was quite a pleasant walk in the crisp air, and Ben snapped this beautiful photo of the castle...

We finally made it back to Russell and Alison's around 7pm... a few hours after we had said we'd return! Luckily they had recently been to the castle themselves, so they understood exactly how it chews up more time than you'd think a 15 minute tour would take. :)

To be continued...

PS. This is our blog's 500th post!