We had seen the magic castle from Disney TV so many times, like many others and we had been told it was worth seeing so we caught the 8.51am train from Munich on our last day here. The castle was hard to find. Most people drive their car or board a tour in Munich but we had a rail pass and a free pass into the castle that came with our Residenz entry deal. Had to change trains at Buchloe, go to the end of the line at Fuessen and catch a bus marked"castles" 4 kilometers to the bottom of a hill.
It was a bendy bus and must have had 120 people on board. Large contingents of Koreans and Chinese were determined to see these Castles. When we got off the bus we saw the Hohenschwangau castle but we were not tempted by it, even though it was covered by our card.
We passed a queue of fifty or more buying tickets and hoped our card would get us in. A little sign said 30 minutes to Neuschwanstein, and it was all up a steep hill. It was starting to feel like a pilgrimage. Some people used the carriages pulled by draft horses and others caught another bus two thirds of the way up. The weather was good and the road was shady so the majority of people seemed to appreciate the walk up as much as we did. Arriving at the castle we found huge crowds and a long queue for the ladies toilets (3 stalls). We were advised at the Residenz that Neuschwanstein should be avoided at the weekend but it did not seem any better on a Tuesday. We sneaked into the information room and found no one else there. The lady looked at our card and printed us a ticket for a tour leaving in 20 minutes - free. Phew! Once the tour began (50 people in each platoon) we quite enjoyed it. Nice young German woman with a hare lip who spoke clearly in perfect English and we felt she was a brave person to overcome her disability and make a career out of public speaking. We only saw a few rooms in the 20 minutes allowed (new tour group every 5 mins) but they were impressive. The castle is only 140 years old but imitates middle ages Romanesque style. The inclusions did not compare with Hampton Court or the Residenz but the most interesting feature was the constant theme of Richard Wagner's opera stories, including a Venusberg Grotto corridor and a performance hall designed for Wagner opera performances which did not achieve that use in the 6 months Ludwig II lived there before he died. It now hosts performances in September each year. Ludwig went to a performance of Lohengrin when he was 15 and became a dedicated follower. The name Schwan crops up everywhere around here and one of the most beautiful pieces in the castle was a large ceramic swan used as a vase.
The paintings of scenes from the operas on every wall deserved closer inspection than we had time for. St George was slaying the dragon again on the chapel wall and a gilt statue was also somewhere there.
The setting of the castle is truly magnificent with the Austrian Alps in the background and the deep chasm of the stream next to it with the little Marienbruecke spanning it and visible through many of the castle windows. We took two shots of the valley below.
Two of the towers were covered in scaffolding and plastic and we could not find a good place to snap the castle:
So we bought a 30c postcard and photographed the model (again).
We walked back down the hill and found it was a half hour wait for the bus so we followed the bike path back to Fuessen Station and were back in the hotel by 7pm. If it is a choice between going to Neuschwanstein or the Residenz we would recommend the latter despite it being fairly plain from the outside. We enjoyed all three castles we saw on our card but tomorrow we travel to Switzerland via St Anton and are ready for some more alpine scenery.
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