Winter Wonders: Neuschwanstein

Day 4 found us in the town of Fussen, the village closest to the castle of Neuschwanstein. We took a tour from Viator (in conjunction with Radius Tours at Munich Hauptbanhof) - if you're planning to do it, take my advice, don't. Its a rip off - £30 for absolutely nothing. The tour guide was completely incompetent and/or inexperienced. Neither one of which made for a very pleasant experience. 

The story: The tour promised a small group trip to the castle with, as the tour guide said '4 hours in and around the castle.' All lies. There were 40 people in the tour BUT it was split into 2 groups of 20 each so yeah, maybe in some world's that's considered small. Either way, the tour guide brought us all the way to the back to the smallest possible carriage (Incompetent? Inexperienced?) where we clearly all couldn't fit so 5 of us were separated to the next carriage, a sad little bicycle carriage ie. for people who bring bicycles/ prams, etc. Of course, this was also the gathering point for people who had no seats so I spent the whole ride with my eyes at crotch level of several people. Anyway, when we got there, the tour said it would be 'skip the line'. Pah, its not skip the line if the guide goes in a separate queue to buy tickets leaving you to wait outside in the cold for 30 minutes. THEN our guide decided that we should go eat lunch at a separate place from the other group because he 'doesn't like the other place'. No questions asked, no choices given. When two ladies who were lost stumbled upon us and asked us where the other group was, the guide said Hotel Muller and subsequently pointed them in the wrong direction. He said "he's not sure because he doesn't go there much." The rest of us however, could tell them where it is (next to the ticket office). (Incompetent? Inexperienced?) Anyway the 4 hours in and around the castle, also a lie - 1 hour spent at the crappy, overpriced restaurant he brought us to, 1 hour spent climbing up and down the mountain, 1 hour spent actually inside (crappy separate tour that we had to pay for ourselves; 20 minutes with 50 people practically running through the castle, 40 minutes spent fighting off crowds at the souvenir shops and toilets) and that final hour? We weren't going to get it because the tour guide wanted to get back in time to lead another tour. We however, weren't going to put up with that kind of awful treatment anymore and relieved him of a train ticket so we could back in our own time. Only to find out that each individual ticket cost them only 6Euros for all transport (Bavaria ticket) ie. less than 1/5th of what we paid for. So again, if you're thinking it'll be hard to get to Neuschwanstein by yourself - don't. Get a Bavaria ticket, reserve admission early and safe yourself trouble, money and wrinkles.

But nonetheless, a horrible guide shall not ruin a beautiful place so here are the pictures:

Neuschwanstein is a 19th century castle built by King LudwigII of Bavaria as a homage to Richard Wagner, famous composer and playwright. Rumour has it that the king swung for the other team. Now, LudwigII is a very interesting man. He was known as Mad King Ludwig, best known as an eccentric who commissioned the building of various art theaters, opera houses and fairytale castles (Neuschwanstein being the most famous). Case in point, in the first floor there is an artificial cave. Just because. But, despite being somewhat off his rocker, he was well loved and he did establish Munich as a centre of art and culture. This castle was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. 

But its of particular interest to me because when I was younger I had this book called The Book of Everything or something like that (the cover had been torn off ages ago) with comics at the bottom of the page and stories (?), well text, told in a story like manner accessible to young children about stuff like Leonardo Da Vinci, Roman emperors, the Sargasso sea, the Bermuda Triangle, etc AND Mad King Ludwig and Neuschwanstein. That was one of my favourites and I read that book cover to cover like a hundred times. It was kinda like an encyclopedia (read a lot of those too)... I was a sad child like that #foreveralone wtf.

Ok ok, I promise, less talking now:

This is Hohenschwangau, King LudwigII's childhood home. He built his fairytale castle overlooking this. Isn't that cute?

Horse drawn carriage to the top, gorgeous scenery. An option to consider if you don't deal well with slippery roads.

Said slippery road.

It snowed so much, the fire hydrants had little caps on them, twas cute - looked like a Santa hat.

 

Baby snowman!

Real life christmas tree, can you see the little twinkly lights?

 And that's all for now.