Hallo, Leuteeeee!
Wie gehts?
On the 3rd day of our spring break trip, my friend and I decided to go to the Neuschwanstein Castle.
It is just a couple of hours from Munich, close to the border to Austria.
We thought about going by ourselves at first, but, after doing the free walking tour, we realised our lives would be a lot easier if we just tagged along with a group and had a guide. The price per person was 34€ and that included the train tickets (return trip). The ticket to get inside the castle was 13€.
If you want to go by yourself, leaving from Munich’s HBF, just get a Bayern ticket to Füssen. 1 person is 25€, but then each additional person is 6€, if I’m not mistaken. Ticket includes, aside from the return trip, a bus ride from Füssen to Schwangau (and vice-versa), the village where the castle is located.
Our group met at Munich’s central station at 9am. It takes about 2 hours to reach Füssen, then another 15(-ish?) minutes from Füssen to Schwangau, and then, if you are walking up to the Neuschwanstein Castle, it’s another 40 minutes. My point is: if you wanna go there from Munich, leave early!
So, we got on the train at around 10am.
SUCH BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES.
Quite bucolic. I felt like I was in the middle of a Jane Austen novel or something.
At some point during our train ride, we started seeing the snowed in mountains of the Bavarian Alps, and I GOT SO EXCITED!!1!11! I had only seen such scenery on FILMS before! NEVER IN REAL LIFE.
What. A. Dream. Come. True. !!!
We arrived in Schwangau at around noon.
Upon arrival, our guide gave us some minutes to eat something (nom nom German sausages and chips oh wait all they ever have are sausages and chips) and explore a bit before we started heading towards Neuschwanstein.
The place is SO LOVELY, as if it were plucked straight out of a fairy-tale. Well, I guess that explains Jacob and Wilhem Grimm’s stories.
From “down there”, in the village, you can already get a pretty nice view of the Neuschwanstein Castle:
It’s the perfect place to take photos so STOP TALKING WHEN YOUR FRIEND IS HOLDING THE CAMERA!!!!
dammit sofia y u like dis
Anyways, there are two castles in Schwangau:
Schloss Hohenschwangau, the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria; and Schloss Neuschwanstein, aka the Disney castle, comissioned by Ludwig II. As you’ve probably figured by now, btw, Schloss = Castle.
Also Hohenschwangau = High Swan Palace; Neuschwanstein = New Swanstone Castle; Schwan = Swan. Ta-daaa, Sofia also = culture! not ٩(◕‿◕)۶
Anyway. Since our focus was le disney castle, my friend and I didn’t go inside le yellow castle (I’m not gonna keep typing these German names over and over again ICH KANN NICHT).
As we started walking towards Neuschwanstein, our guide started telling us the story of that castle…
And though the place looks wonderful, the history behind it isn’t idyllic at all.
After the end of the Seven-Weeks War (also known as Austro-Prussian War), in 1868, King Ludwig II was stripped of his powers, and Austria and Bavaria were conquered by Prussia. That was when the construction of this castle was commissioned by Ludwig II. It is thought that then he isolated himself in a world of fantasy, in which Neuschwanstein would be the centerpiece of his imaginary kingdom, where he could act as a true royal.
Ludwig II had a reputation of being an eccentric person, and one can understand why the castle is the fairy-tale castle by reading an excerpt from a letter he wrote to Richard Wagner:
I am looking forward very much to living there one day (in 3 years); there will be several cosy, habitable guest rooms with a splendid view of the noble Säuling, the mountains of Tyrol and far across the plain; (…) the location is one of the most beautiful to be found, holy and unapproachable, (…) this castle will be in every way more beautiful and habitable than Hohenschwangau further down, which is desecrated every year by the prose of my mother; they will take revenge, the desecrated gods, and come to live with Us on the lofty heights, breathing the air of heaven.
I GET THE CHILLS EVERY TIME I THINK OF THIS LETTER.
Actually, all the letters Ludwig II and Wagner exchanged… Oh, boy. i ship
Ludwig II passed away in 1886, and the construction of the castle only ended in 1892. SO SAD! ):
By the time the guide finished telling us about the castle, we had arrived at the top of le hill.
It’s one thing to see the castle from a considerable distance, and it’s a whole-notha-deal seeing it up close. Them details! You feel so tiny! So insignificant! What is the meaning of life? PEOPLE BUILT THIS! How? They must have used so many stones! I wonder – how many?
We did the castle tour (pictures not allowed!), and it was real-SWANS EVERYWHERE! On the wallpapers, on the carvings. Everything is grand and fancy. T’was interesting, but I enjoyed admiring the castle from afar, with that wonderful landscape, way more.
Afterwards, we still had a couple of hours to explore, so we went walking around the castle, taking pictures and admiring the most beautiful landscape I’d ever seen.
There is a bridge nearby where people go to take pictures with the castle in the background, and I WANTED ONE PICTURE TOO!! It wasn’t just for le instagrammable moment – my dad had taken a picture there about 30 years ago, and being there just meant a great deal to me.
The bridge was so full of people, but WE BRAZILIANS DONT GIVE UP EASILY, so we made our way through the crowd to take the goddamn photos.
Despite being scared that the bridge might not be able to stand that many people all at once. So, I took a bunch of photos just to make up for all the people pushing/pulling/touching and invading my personal space. *introverts’ nightmare*
THANK YOU JU SUA LIMDA POR ESTA FOTO ♡ que eu amo muito!
AHAAAA! LOOK! ITS ME! ON THE SAME BRIDGE! LIKE DADDY! I hid dad’s face because I’m not sure how he’d feel about his photo being up on my blog. He probably wouldn’t mind, but, ehrrrm, I’ll never know.
That bridge is also the perfect place to take photos of the castle. And of the view! So, here are a gazillion more photos:
Then, t’was time to walk down.
When you’re climbing up the mountain and listening to a guide telling you all the 19th Century Bavarian gossip, it’s hard to pay attention to what’s behind. Aka more of an inspiring landscape. The trees, the land, the snow, the colours – how they all blend in beautifully and perfectly.
So, while walking down, you get to see all that. And le yellow castle looking really tiny!
Das ist alles.
We walked down, got on the bus to the train station, hopped on a train from Füssen to Munich, had to hop off the train and wait out in the cold n dark for about 40 minutes because someone left a bag unattended and omg bomb alert, then we hopped on again and made it to Munich.
Safe, sound, and forever changed by this experience. Vielen Dank, Ju, for being there with me. ♡
This is the longest and most detailed post I have ever written.
But it was for a good reason. I am really proud of it, and I hope you’ve made it til the end without simply just scrolling down and not reading it nor taking a look at the photos. Sorry for any typos or something!
If you have anything to say, questions or whatever, feel free to leave them in the comment box below or tweet me @tweetsbysofi.
xoxo
The Comments
Spring break day 5: exploring Prague and the Prague Castle • Sofia Chang
[…] the largest ancient castle complex in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Unlike the Neuschwanstein Castle, when you walk in the Prague Castle, you get the sense that you are walking into a little village. […]