There are 3 of them in the area, one in Fussen town itself and the other two 4kms away at Schwangau, of those two one is privately owned, the other is the property of the Bavarian Government.
The Duke of Bavaria owns that which is known as Hohenschwangau Castle which makes a majestic sight as it sits between two lakes with the Bavarian Alps as a backdrop
However the more well known one is Neuschwanstein Castle, constructed from 1869 it was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria who paid for it out of his own personal fortune. Ludwig died in 1886 and so the castle remained unfinished and it was then opened to the public.
It is a 40 minute walk up to the castle, or you can be lazy and take a horse drawn carriage. When we were walking up some carriages went passed and I swear you could hear the two draught horses breathing heavily and why wouldn’t you with the steepness of the slope and the weight of the carriage and occupants (without being disrespectful it tended to be the overweight and unfit who choose this way up the hill).
We made our way straight to Marienbrucke which was a further 20 minute walk up the hill but standing on the bridge looking down the valley gave a great view of the castle so that climb was well worth while
If you have been in royal castles previously you are no longer overawed by the decor, frescos, chandeliers etc. and while photos were not permitted in the main tour area we took some of the kitchen - there is a fair bit of € in those copper pots at the scrap yard!
A kind tourist took our photo from just below the castle…
…in fact she liked what she saw through the lenses so much that she actually took 8.
The following is a photo of the castle taken from the air and gives a better view of its beauty.
The view back to a Fussen is also not to be sneezed at
Note the small church sitting in the middle of the photo and effectively in the middle of nowhere!
A worthwhile visit.
Something that is starting to rankle are restaurants (not so) subtle requests for tips. As an example tonight when paying for our meal the waitress while keying in the amount of our bill into the eftpos machine casually said “do you wish to tip in cash or on the card” so when I replied on the card she nominated a figure, entered it into the machine and said “that ok?”!!! We will have to develop a strategy to handle this approach.
Kms driven to date 2206
Kms walked to date 339.1
Spent on Diesel €129.66
Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg
Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg
Spent on tolls €0
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