Schloss Neuschwantstein und Schloss Hohenschwangau

This weekend we took a trip to Schwangau so that we could see the Neuschwantstein and Hohenschwangau Castles. We drove out Friday and stayed at rented apartment that night. After eating dinner at a restaurant, we drove around some to see a few things that evening in the town of Füssen and up near the castles. The castles were lite up beautifully, so we are really glad we got to see them at night too.

Hohenschwangau Castle from the valley road

The large white thing on the top of the Hohenschwangau Castle is actually a giant swan.

The Neuschwantstein Castle at night

The next morning we had tickets reserved to go through the Neuschwanstein Castle. What we didn't realize is that it would take about 30 minutes to walk to the castle with Austin. We therefore ended up starting our walk later than we should have and had to really hustle while carrying Austin up to the castle.

We reached the castle a bit tired, out of breath, and just in time for our tour. It was worth it though. I knew before we saw it that the Neuschwanstein Castle would be absolutely beautiful on the outside. It is the famous fairy tale castle that was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. The picturesque castle with the breath-taking landscape surrounding it exceeded the beauty of anything I had expected or imagined, but I was equally blown away by the ornate rooms found inside. From the wall paintings, mosaic tiled floors, and intricate carvings, the inside was just as worthy of the fairy tale designation as the outside. The building of the castle was started in 1872 under King Ludwig II, who use it as his personal retreat where he could live out his medieval ideals. He loved music, plays, and operas so many of the paintings in the castle depict scenes from his favorite opera stories, which are based on legends and fairy tales of sorts. There are especially a lot of paintings, sculptures, and carvings that reference the story of St. George slaying the dragon, which are also references to good (St. George) overcoming evil (the dragon). Numerous swans are also found around the castle, since swans were Ludwig II's favorite animal.

The bedroom of Ludwig II was especially ornate with its intricate wood carvings that took fourteen carvers over four years to finish. The bed canopy itself is topped with carvings of every Bavarian cathedral tower.

The inside of the castle was never finished. It far exceeded the original estimated costs as King Ludwig II continued to add things to it. In fact, only 17 of the 200 planned rooms are done, and some things from the completed rooms are not even finished. For example, there is no throne in the throne room. The paintings in the throne room around where the throne was meant to go depict six canonized kings, the apostles, angels, Mary, and Christ himself above the throne. The idea was to show Christ appointing authority to the king to be the ruler. This idea of the divine right of kings was unpopular and outdated at Ludwig II's time. Germany was a constitutional monarchy by then, so this didn't go over well with many people.

We also saw all the other finished rooms, including a dinning room, study, waiting room for visitor's to the throne, and theater among other things. Interestingly enough, there was also an artificial cave made by a stage set designer, which at one point had a waterfall and colored lighting in it.

Unfortunately, visitors are not permitted to take pictures from inside the castle, and so we don't have any to share here. I also wish we had just been able to spend longer in each room more carefully taking it all in, but that was also not possible on the fast paced guided tour.

Front of Neuschwantstein Castle

View of the valley below from up at the castle

After coming back down from the Neuschwantstein Castle, we tried to get tickets to also see the inside of the Hohenschwangau Castle. However, the tickets we wanted ended up selling out before we could get them. We decided to get lunch and just walk up to the castle afterwards for a closer view.

The Hohenschwangau Castle was a ruin when King Maximilian (Ludwig II's father) acquired it and had it re-built. He used it as a summer and hunting residence for his family, so Ludwig II spent time there as a child and loved the area.

View of the buildings below Hohenschwangau Castle

After visiting Hohenschwangau Castle, it was too late to see much else. We were hoping to ride the tram to the top of the mountain, but by that time the clouds covered the tops of all the mountains and we knew we wouldn't be able to see much after going up. Tram tickets were expensive, so we decided it wasn't worth the money.

We have found it difficult to fit everything in we want to here since most museums, palaces, historical points, and other things of interest to tourists open at 10:00 in the morning and close at 4:00 in the afternoon during the winter. This leaves little time to drive between different points of interest and still be able to actually spend time at the places we want to see. Austin tends to further complicate things, because he doesn't walk to places quickly. He was actually in a cranky mood all of Saturday, which also made things more difficult.

Since the tram didn't work out, we drove over to the nearby town of Füssen to walk around there some more. This town is about 700 years old and lies right along the old road connecting northern Italy to Augsburg. I loved the view of the Hohes Schloss (High Castle) from the nearby river. This castle is the former summer residence of the Bishops of Augsburg

Here is the painted facade of Heilig-Geist-Spitalkirche (hospital church):

Here are Nate and Austin in front of the main entrance to the former Benedictine Abbey of St. Mang. Now there is a local history museum inside, which was of course closed since it was after 4:00.

St. Mang's Abbey/Füssen Abbey

We were rather confused at how few shops in this area were open while we were here. The old town area is packed with various little shops on the street, with apartments above them. However, the vast majority of them were closed. I don't know if they are closed for the winter or just open for very short hours during the day. Either way, we aren't sure how they manage to stay in business if they are closed so much. Even most of the restaurants we passed were closed, despite the fact that dinner time was nearing.