Neuschwanstein Castle

We drove far enough to enter Germany and stay the night in Stuttgart. Thursday we drove south toward the Austrian border, stopping to see the castles of “Screwy Louie”, the doctor certified insane king. Our reservation was for two castles: Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig II spent his childhood, and Neuschwanstein, built by Ludwig to honor the opera composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig lived in the unfinished Neuschwanstein for about 100 days. His doctor declared him clinically insane and within a few days both Ludwig and the doctor turned up dead in a German lake. Nothing has been proven, but the suspicion is that Ludwig killed the doctor and committed suicide. The castle is very impressive, despite significant portions of Ludwig’s plans never being finished, and inspired the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyworld. Both castles are in immaculate condition, with plenty of “wow, look at that” views. We hiked the trail behind Neuschwanstein to the Marienbrucke (Mary’s bridge), a skinny, steel, arch hundreds of feet above a water fall with a great view of the castle. The trail continued into the mountains, unfortunately time did not allow further exploration. That night we stayed in Schwangau, a nearby town within view of the castle. It was quite nice to sit in the balcony of our room with the mountains framing the “Disneyland castle”. The town was interesting to my parents since the cows and horses were kept in barns inside the town. The houses are close together, as is typical in Europe, and every so often a barn is shoehorned.