Mad King Ludwig

Bavarian View

Today, our plan is to visit two castles of Mad King Ludwig, the castle of Hohenschwangau and the castle Neuscwanstein. We have reservations at 1055 for Hohenswangau and 1255 for Neuschwanstein. You have to be there a minimum of 1 hour ahead to keep your time. We decide to leave on a 0830 bus for the short 15 minute ride and see if we can get on an earlier tour. It is raining slightly but looks like the clouds are getting higher and lighter so we hope it lets up.

Hohenschwangau From Above

Arriving at 0845, We manage to snag a 0920 and 1125 time instead. Happy about that, we start our walk up to Hohenswangau Castle. King Ludwig grew up here as a boy and became king at 18 years old. We get to see the queens floor and the kings floor. There are many displays of gifts given to the king during his reign. Jewels and gold everywhere. The Wittelsbach family which ruled Bavaria for almost 700 years still own the castle. They are really raking it in with tours, souvenirs, DVDs, etc.

Neuschwanstein

Back to King Ludwig who decided to build Neuschwanstein, the castle of his dreams. It was built from 1869 to 1886 and was never completely finished. King Ludwig got to live in it for a mere 72 days before he was declared mad and then was mysteriously found dead the next morning ( some say suicide, some say murder) in the nearby lake.
Completing our tour of Hohenscwangau, we start our long uphill all the way walk to Neuschwanstein. Carol seems to have found some untapped energy and just starts motoring up the hill passing flocks of tourists as if they were standing still. Charlie tries to keep up but the sweat factory kicks in, weighing him down and he lags behind. The castle people sign has a predicted time of 50 minutes on the walk but it is done by CNC in about 30 minutes. We stop at a nice overlook, find a bench and wait for our tour time.

Kings Mosaic in Throne Room

After our wait we begin our tour. No pictures but I sneak one just for my faithful followers. The outside of the castle is said to have inspired Walt Disney for Cinderella’s Castle at Disneyland/World. Inside the rooms are beautiful. The Kings bedroom is made of many wood carvings. This room alone took wood carvers over 4 years to finish. There is a huge throne room with famous kings of Bavaria and the ultimate King, Jesus Christ in a mosaic dome. We pass a winter garden and an indoor cave. Even with all this, only about a third of the castle was finished before his death. The second floor was never used with one exception. During WWII, the Nazi’s used the castle as a secret storehouse for their stolen art. It took over a year for the allies to sort through and redistribute the art, and they used the second floor to store it after sorting it. 49 rail cars of art were filled from just this one location.

St. Mary’s Bridge from Neuschwanstein

Finishing our tour, we find a nice bench and have another picnic lunch of salami and cheese sandwiches. We have decided to walk to Marienbrucke (Mary’s Bridge), uphill of course, to view the gorge below and the castle. It starts to rain and by the time we reach the bridge, it is coming down steadily. We take a few quick pictures, duck under a small shelter and decide what to do next.

Walking the Catwalk

                      We decide to take a trail down into a gorge, back to Hohenswangau, rather than take the road of a thousand tourists. The rain is slowing up as we turn off the main path and start down. Almost immediately, we are by ourselves. Descending we come to a small overlook looking up at the bridge and waterfall below it. We are hiking the Pollatschlucht, which I think is Pollat Gorge. Continuing down, we reach the river well below the bridge. The rain is stopping and it is beautiful down here. After spending a little quiet time, we start moving back down the trail. We reach a deeper section of the gorge and are now walking on metal grates secured into the side of the mountain, with air and water beneath us. We think this is very cool. Further down, we get back to dirt and soon level off the rest of the way to the bus stop.

Beautiful Path

Our plan is to walk to Fussen, rather than take the bus. It should be about 3 to 3.5 miles and it has stopped raining so we think it is just more training for the Alps. We find a path that points to Fussen and head down it. We thought we were going to stay near the road as we saw paths the whole way here when we were on the bus. However, after a half mile or so, we veer away from the road and into the woods. We see another sign for Fussen and follow that path. At one point we break out of the woods into a meadow. We can see the Alps ducking in and out from behind the clouds and the sun starts to shine on us.

Schwansee – Alpine Lake

We soon come to a lake where we see a few people swimming, so who are we not to test the waters. There are two docks with ladders at the end where you can get in. So, we go a little further and try to walk in at a low spot along the bank. Bad move, as there are some pretty sharp little rocks here. Hobbling back to our shoes, we move to the dock and see lots of fish in the water below. Risking my life with the rare German Lake Piranha, I jump in. It is cold but not as cold as the high mountain lakes of Colorado. Refreshed, I get out so Carol can take her turn. She bravely goes in surprising me once again. Her track record of going in cold water with her crazy husband has not been good. Or it has been good, depending on your point of view. Maybe, she is finding a new sense of adventure on this trip.
After our short swim, we dry off on the dock. We chat with a German lady for a little bit. She got in when we were on the dock and swam out to the middle of the lake and back. Not impressed? Well, she rode her bike here, and then swam, and she was in her 70’s. It is amazing to us how many older people are active here biking, walking, and swimming.

Walking to Fussen

Somewhat dried off, we start back down the trail. It forks with both ways saying Fussen. We choose the left path and soon start climbing. No more signs and we are now hiking in some pretty thick wooded country. No map and I really do not know which direction we are going but I do know how to get back to where we were. We continue on, figuring sooner or later we will see a sign. Every intersection we have come to while walking outside of towns in Germany, has a sign. The trail system here is very well marked and the signs also have how many kilometers to the destination although sometimes the distances vary so I think some signs are distance to the next intersection. Or, they just like messing with you while you walk in the woods. We climb quite a bit before we come to a sign and turn right beginning to descend. We come to a road and recognizing a smoke stack I saw yesterday, we cross it and walk back to the bridge we went under on our previous walk.

To King Ludwig

We have found our way and are soon back in our room. The Donor Kebap place just up the street calls us and we get two and eat them at a table in the lobby area of our hotel. We then take a short walk to a indoor place that has two small bars, delis, and vegetable stands. We are here to have the beer that we did not have with dinner. Two King Ludwig Dunkels are savored as we relax and observe the locals. Another great day done, we retreat to our room for the night. Tomorrow, we test the German bus system.
CNC

Expenses
4.04E- 2 pretzels, lunch meat, antipasto, and bread
4E- Bus Tickets to Castles.
29.20E- 2 tickets to Hohenswangau
6E- 2 Doner Kebaps
5.20E-2 Beers
62.20E- City Apartment Hotel

Miles walked- 8.75 Miles. 15440 steps