Neuschwanstein is a must-see-or-you-gonna-regret-forever spot for every tourist visit Munich or surrounding area. For me, I’ve been seduced by the fantasy castle after I had saw the cover of a guide book “Discover Europe” published by Lonely Planet. BTW, this castle is the prototype of DisneyLand’s prestigeous logo.
And that’s part of the reason why I decided to visit Munich in a rush. I don’t wanna be regret after I go back to Asia. “I wish I’ve been to Neuschwanstein.”
Okay, stop murmuring, let’s talk about the main topic. The word “Neuschwanstein” was quite a nuissance for me since it’s hard for a beginner to speak, but after you analyze the word, it will be much much easy than you expect. The word can be departed as Neu-schwan-stein, Neu means “new” in Deutsch, and Schwan means “swan”, finally stein means “stone”.
I bought my 3rd Bavarian Single ticket for the 3rd day, totally cost me 60E of transportation of this trip, then I hopped on the train from Munich to Fussen. I wondered I’d like to meet some Asian people today since Neuschwanstein is one of the most popular tourist spot for Japanese, Korean or Chinese.
I saw 2 girls sitting accorss the asile, they were Asian, OK, but I was alone and there’s an big guy sat next to me. I got no shot to talk to them.
Hohenschwangau
And then I arrived Fussen, and transferred bus to Schwangau, I saw 2 guys from Eastern Europe maybe tried to find the way to go. I helped them getting in the bus quene and saw the girls on the train again. This time I talked to them and they are from Hong Kong, but had an appartment in Munich. I said that I’m going to visit the 2 castles today and how about their plan? They answered they’ve got no plan of the day, just wanna visit the castles. I proposed that how about we spent the day together. They were so kind to accept me :)
We wished we met more early so that we can share the group ticket for 28E instead of one paid for 20E. But nevertheless, it’s good to find somebody who can talk to along the trip.
Stephanie and Toto (Lelf and right)
Our appointment of the visit was 13:55 for the old swan castle (Hohenschwangau) and 15:55 for the new one (Neuschwanstein). So that we had lunch in a fancy hotel then. (Everything in Schwangau looked so fancy and expensive!)
Radler, to prevent getting sleepy
Pork fillet with beer sause, Bavarian specialty
Fried meat plate, Bavarian specialty
Cream spaghetti, just for stuffed the belly
The weather was heavily snowy, we can barely talk when walking on the road. I’ve never expected that snow can be that annoying and freezing my toes. Furthermore, when it snows cats and dogs, you can rarely take photos with camera, since there must be snow flake on the lens and ruin the quality.
A long long way to walk
Little did we know that there’s a pedestrain’s path to the castle, we walked along the carriage way in heavy snow. But it’s totally worthy cause when we walked in the woods, I felt like being one character from The Chronicles of Narnia, maybe the evil snow White Witch would coming into us.
Gate of the castle
When we doubt ourselves if we went the wrong way, there came a big yellow gate to us. It’s Hohenschwangau castle.
Hohenschwangau Castle or Schloss Hohenschwangau (lit: High Swan County Palace) is a 19th century palace in southern Germany. It was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. It is located in the German village of Schwangau near the town of Füssen, part of the county of Ostallgäu in southwestern Bavaria, Germany.
The exterior of the castle is all painted in yellow color, which made it much more distinguishable.
Yellow
The thing is that every tourist has to wait outside until the LED board had called your number to gey in. While waiting for visiting, we met the other Asian guy, Jackson from Hong Kong, too.
The inside of the castle was prohibited to take photos, but there are so many amazing paintings and artcrafts. Imagine a palace with a real King had ever lived inside. But the tour itself was a little bit too short, 35 minutes later we were kicked off the castle and had to wait for the other 1.5 hours to the new one.
Still, it stopped snow and we can see the clear blue sky right after we left the old castle. Such a good news for us so that we played with snow.
Stupid playing-snow boy
Vendors by the street
There was a girl stood next to the path, selling fried cheese damplings to tourists. But damn, she had a poker face and scares everyone away. It’s off-season and it’s close to 0 degree outside, it’s not her to be blamed had that attitude. To be honest, I could feel her anger.
Alone the way, we can see the amazing castle!
On our way to the castle, I met 3 Japanese girls. They’re also backpackers for 3 weeks in Europe. And their next destination is Frankfurt. I spoke to them with my poor Japanese speaking. I wondered that I need to find some time for Japanese conversation lessons.
So many girls!
Click for enlarge the image.
Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein, pronounced [nɔʏˈʃvaːnʃtaɪn]) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner.
The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886.[1] Since then over 60 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle.[2] More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer.[3] The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
We didn’t make it to the Marienbruecke, it was closed for security reason. What a shame was that situation. I’d like to take a lot of photos on the bridge. (You can see the zoom in of the bridge in the video.)
To be honest, after a closer look at the castle, it was not as fantastic as we seen on postcards. But still, it’s totally worth to pay a visit. The inside of the building was extremely gorgeous and well-decorated. Almost every walls were painted with artistic drawings and stories. And we saw so many swans in the castle, in paintings, on the chandliers or even at the pillar of the rooms.
It looked like a postcard photo
I was glad that I brought my new camera here, I’ve taken so many beautiful pictures and high quality videos to share with my friends and family.
I spent almost a whole day around the castle. Before I came I was alone, and then after I left, I’ve got 3 more friends. What a blessing! We went to a local restaurant near Munich station for dinner.
It was called “Augustiner Brau” a traditional brewery house serving traditional foods.
Of course the foods was nice but I think it’s the people made the night so rememberable. That day was Toto’s Birthday, but we didn’t drunk her.
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