I woke up early this morning to head to the hills of Bavaria to go to the castles of Neuschwanstein (let’s be honest, I am just going to call it the Sleeping Beauty castle) and Hohenschwangau. It was just over a 2 hour train ride plus a bus ride, but well worth it since the weather was so clear in Bavaria (although a bit cold). On the train, I met a girl who was working in Brussels although originally from China, so we spent most of the day together on our journey. The first stop was the Hohenschwangau castle, a bright building on the hillside that has a very different styling than the other castle we visited.
We hiked up the hill (of course snapping plenty of pictures along the way) where a tour of the inside of the castle began. Part of the castle was being renovated, but luckily it did not get in the way much in terms of getting amazing views of the entire castle. There were even great views of some small Bavarian towns.
Some reviews of the tour said it was not really worth it, but I thought it was interesting to learn the history and see the décor. Like many of the world’s extravagant buildings, the castle was never actually completed by King Ludwig II since he died before construction was finished; he had so many debts that his family stopped all further construction and even stopped an order for a throne to limit expenses after his death. The entire castle interior is an ode to the composer Wagner with each room themed after one of the artists’ operas. It was definitely very lavish, but I thought the overall idea was very intriguing.
After the tour, we hiked to a bridge where some of the main photos of both castles are taken. It was beyond spectacular and there was even a waterfall as if the scenery wasn’t amazing enough.
To complete the visit, we stopped in Fussen, the small town where the closest train stop is before heading back to Munich. It looked just like Leavenworth (or I guess more like Leavenworth looked like it)! There were adorable buildings, colorful signs and a beautiful lake.
