Neuschwanstein

The last day of our trip, we came back to Germany to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. We took another overnight train, and this one went worse for Becka, slightly better for me—at least we were on the bottom bunk this time, and I also learned from experience to take a nap on the subsequent bus ride from Munich, where our train terminated. 

I tried to learn from my mistake with the Alhambra and book tickets ahead of time, but the reservation I made on Monday apparently never went through, which was kind of annoying, but fortunately, it’s not top tourist season yet, and I guess even then they don’t tend to run out till about noon. Our bus arrived at 10:40, so we were in good shape to just get in the regular line and buy tickets for the 12:35 tour. We spent probably more time dawdling than we should have, because we suddenly realized as we were ready to go up that the carriage ride we’d been planning on might not get us to the castle on time—there was a long line, and no indication of how long the ride takes. So we decided to take the bus, which was somewhat less fun, but it got us there on time.

I personally thought the castle is (even) prettier up close/in person than the faraway view you usually get in pictures. They let tours in every 5 minutes, and you have to wait for your group number to be called, but once it is, everyone storms the gate, haha. The inside of the castle was different than I expected—I think I honestly was expecting it to look like the interior they show in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang... but apparently only 30% of the rooms were ever finished, since King Ludwig died pretty young. The man definitely had an unrivaled passion for luxury, as apparent by the rooms he did finish. The throne room is decked out all in gold with a huge crown-shaped chandelier that I kind of got a kick out of, and a huge mosaic floor. The walls of the rooms are all covered in paintings of scenes from German folklore, and the wood carving on all the furniture is so intricate. He had a slew of modern amenities that you don’t even realize were even available in the 19th century, a room made into a synthetic cave complete with fabricated lightning and dripping water, and a large ballroom where he would simply sit and imagine what it would be like to live in medieval times (I believe he was known as painfully shy). Every inch of the rooms was painted some bright color. It was waaaay over the top, but actually not in like a gaudy way. My favorite part was the crown-shaped chandeliers—there were more smaller ones in the ballroom. Our tour guide was pretty fun, too. He was very soft-spoken, but still full of character. He ended the tour with, "Me? I think he [Ludwig] was a little bit special" (in his soft German accent, lol).

Just as we were about to leave the castle, it started pouring down rain. Since it had been sunny all morning and seemed similar to the storm in Granada, I figured we could wait it out, so we just hung out in the tunnel at the exit for about half an hour. Finally I agreed that maybe the storm wouldn’t be letting up soon and agreed to let Becka run back to get our stuff (they make you leave backpacks in lockers but it’s all the way at the other end of the castle, and there’s no indoor way to get back there...). By the time she got back, though, our ponchos has worked their magic and it was basically done raining. So we hiked up to the bridge that overlooks the ravine and gives a spectacular view of the castle. Rebecca was not convinced it was safe, and I have to admit, the wood did give a little under all the feet and it was a little nerve-wracking, but it is reinforced by steel, and hundreds of people walk across and stand on it every day, so I persuaded her to come out and take a picture with me. 

It started raining a little as we were heading back down, so we decided to have an early dinner at the restaurant up near the castle. It was a cute little place where the waitresses all wear traditional Bavarian outfits, and I had some kind of pork and noodle concoction with mushroom sauce (no, it was not stroganoff). Our dinner outlasted the rain, and we wanted to take the horse carriages down since we’d missed them on the way up. 

There was a bit of a line, and also people weren’t really observing it anyway, but it worked out for us because we ended up with  an awesome driver. He had a great little Bavarian hat, and we sat up front and Becka made instant best friends with him. He told a bunch of jokes and also a lot of information about the horses and the whole carriage business. The rain hood was up on the carriage, so I couldn’t tell if there was any kind of view of the castle from the trail, which would have been neat on the way up, but it didn’t really seem like it anyway. 

After that we had about an hour and a half to kill, so we went and sat out by the lake, which is very beautiful, surrounded by mountains and trees on almost all sides. Very picturesque.

And that’s it! We conquered Europe!