Neuschwanstein
Neuschwanstein is a famous castle built by the Bavarian King Ludwig II. He was a somewhat crazy king who is notable for spending a lot of money on building 3 major castles before his mysterious death. Neuschwanstein is probably the most famous of them, and is often referred to as a "fairy tale castle." Part of this is because it was built in a medieval style despite it being the later part of the 19th century, and part of it is because it was dedicated to Richard Wagner and his operas. There are a lot of decorations that show scenes from the operas, and there is even an artificial cave taken from a scene in Tannhäuser.
That day started with a 5-hour train ride, a decent amount of it near the Alps. I discovered that Easter Monday is definitely a thing in Austria and Germany (as in, a lot of places were closed or had reduced hours).
As an aside, there's a fairly standard procedure I found when taking pictures from the train:
- See interesting subject
- Get camera out
- Train starts going past trees, a wall, buildings, or some other obstacle
- Camera finishes turning on
In related news, I have a decent number of somewhat bad pictures, and a strong dislike towards whoever came up with the idea of having a row of trees right next to the track.
After 3 separate trains and a bus, I arrived in Hohenschwangau, the village Neuschwanstein is above. It's basically a collection of souvenir shops, hotels, restaurants, and the places necessary for running tourist stuff tucked in the Alps a few miles from the Austrian border. I was really glad that I reserved tickets in advance, because the line was really long. In addition to Neuschwanstein, I had arranged to tour Hohenschwangau Castle, which was also right above the town.
Hohenschwangau had been built by Ludwig II's father, Maximillian II. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures inside. One of the best ways I can summarize it is this: The Bavarian royal family was very rich. It was very well-decorated and full of items like a present for Ludwig that had been made with materials like gold and ivory, included enamel coats of arms for a range of cities in Bavaria, and took 3000 hours to make.
After that tour, I walked over to Neuschwanstein. The weather was kind of bad, and it snowed at multiple times, but I managed.
Again, the interior of the castle was amazing. There were a lot of frescoes of medieval stories. Interestingly, there was only one place that had decorations linking the castle to Ludwig or the royal family. One of the most impressive items in the castle was the king's bed, which had a top carved in the shape of a gothic church. I can only imagine how hard it must be to clean. Unfortunately, Ludwig died while the castle was being constructed and his successor stopped the construction to save money, so the castle is unfinished and missing objects like the throne.
The weather had gotten slightly better by the time I was done, so I went to look at the Alpsee, a lake next to Hohenschwangau.
Finally, I went back to Füssen, the town that the train stopped at, and where I spent the night. I think the majority of the buildings there were hotels.
The next morning, I went on a brief walk to look at the Lechfalls, a nearby waterfall.
On the way, I discovered yet another castle. I guess people really liked castles back then?
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