Neuschwanstein and Fussen

Ever seen pictures of Neuschwanstein and think “Holy crap, I want to go there?”

Yeah, me too.

Neuschwanstein is just 2 hours south of Munich, so it’s a very popular tourist destination. Rather than making it a day trip, we decided to stay in the nearby alp town of Fussen to enjoy some time in the German Alps (I realize that after this trip is done, we’ll have seen the Swiss Alps, German Alps, Italian Alps, and Austrian Alps. Cool!)

We arrived on some real “grey cloud” weather, so we quickly checked in to our hostel—Pension LA. We had a small double room with a view of the mountains. After settling in, we headed out to get a beer at a local brauhaus and check out the town. It’s a small but cute town, full of nice shops and restaurants. We checked out a few shops and then headed over to a local brauhaus where we enjoyed some beer as a fire crackled away in a woodburning stove nearby.

For dinner we dined at a local pizza place--- very yummy. It was a really windy, nasty night so we headed back to do our best to go to bed, so that we could wake up and go to the castle early. Of course we are night owls, and can’t really ever get to bed before about 1. Nevertheless, we woke up bright and early to eat a quick breakfast in the hostel and then take the bus to see the castles.

We boarded a packed bus at about 9am with a slew of other tourists and headed for the town of Hohenschwangau—home to both Neuschwanstein and the Hohen Schwangau castles. We booked the “King’s Ticket” to tour both of them, starting with the Hohenschwangau castle.

Hohenschwangau was a boyhood vacation residence of King Ludwig II, then a prince. It’s a beautiful castle, perched on a hill above a lake and it’s filled with beautiful murals depicting various Bavarian legends. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside (?!?), but here are some pictures of the outside:

King Ludwig II, often known as “Mad King Ludwig,” "the Fairy-tale King," "the Swan King," or "King Fancy Pants of Bavaria" (okay, I made that last one up) was quite an extravagant builder. Neuschwanstein was one of his dream castles and he observed it being built from his home in Hohenschwangau. The place is totally incredible. It is massive, decadent, ornate and completely worth seeing. Once again, you couldn’t take photos inside, but here are some exterior shots.

Incredible, right? And don’t you think it bears a striking resemblance to a Disney castle? Yes? Like the one in Disney's Sleeping Beauty? Good eye! According to our tour guide in Munich, Disney used Ludwig's lavish castle as inspiration for the castle featured in Sleeping Beauty, and even - again, according to our tour guide - pays the Bavarian state royalties each year! Talk about funny!!

Anyway, this was probably the most overtly touristy thing we’ve done, but I thought it was really fun to see these fairy-tale castles in person. If you’ve got an extra day in Bavaria, I’d recommend it!

After the tours, we headed back to Fussen for a late lunch at the brewhouse where we had beers the day prior. Unfortunately, when we arrived there was a sign saying they’d be opening at 4:30. Okay, fine—we’d have dinner there. We headed back to have a picnic (which you’ll read about in the next day or so). When we went back around 6 or so, the chalkboard sign had been erased and it now read that they’d be closed Saturday. This has definitely been a theme of the trip. Things say they are open and they aren’t. We were definitely disappointed— so we decided to drown our sorrows in some Chinese food. Yum!

Once again, we had a very early morning ahead of this (this time wake up was 5:30am), so we headed back to pack and get some shut-eye for the 13 hour journey to the Cinque Terre.