Off the Beaten Path

12:20 AM Munich

Today was probably our favorite day in Europe! Or at least it was very high on the charts. After breakfast, we took the noon train to Fussen and hopped on a bus up to the Neuschwanstein Castle. Neuschwanstein is a popular day trip from Munich and there were a few bus tours to choose from – naturally we decided we were saving money and doing it on our own. This was definitely a good decision for us because we had extra travel days on our rail passes and Fussen is a two-hour journey from Munich. If you’re in Munich and you don’t have a rail pass, make sure you buy the combined ticket (available at where ever you’re staying, most likely – our hostel was selling them) for about 26€, otherwise you’ll pay way over double that between train tickets, bus tickets, and the castle tour. However, since we had a rail pass, we just paid 4.20€ for a two-way bus ticket and 12 for the castle tour. The guided tour of the castle is required in order to enter it… they don’t let you just roam around the rooms.

Neuschwanstein belongs to Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, and is a pretty new castle – built in the late 19^th century. Ludwig had a taste for palaces and mysteriously died (reported to have drowned in less than 5 feet of water… later found with bullets in his back) before the castle was completed… likely due to angry tax payers. The palace was opened to the public soon after, although all the grandeur that was in the plans was never completed. For example, there is a throne room with solid Carrera marble steps, but no actual throne. The views from all the windows were just majestic but the inside of the castle itself was pretty ugly. Ludwig was inspired by midevil castles and attempted to recreate what one would look like. Every square inch of the wall space is covered in various frescos that generally tell a story. The chandeliers are all metal with super tacky, fake gem stones (tinted glass) all over them, as well. Really the only thing beautiful about this palace was the architecture itself, and its location in the mountains. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside… but I’m sure you’ll agree with me about how gorgeous the surrounding area is :) Here are some pictures of the trip!

I really like this one because Andy looks mesmerized by the landscape and you can see our train cars ahead of us

Typical lunch :P (6.20€ ... bargain!)

Hike up to the top!

The walk from where the bus drops you off up to the castle is about 30 minutes up a pretty steep road (you could hire a horse drawn carriage, if you like, or rent bikes). We walked up, admiring the dense forests, and had about 30 minutes to hang out and take pictures before our tour started. We noticed a bridge over a waterfall a good distance away, and of course I decided I HAD to stand on it before we went back down. 

Andy and the Castle!

Breathtaking views of the countryside 

Outside the entrance

Standing outside the castle gates - this is your view of the bridge, Marienbruke (Mary's Bridge) and the gorgeous waterfall below it

This would be the view the King had when we woke up in the morning!! Amazing! We also had amazing weather... finally!

Another shot from the King's tower

Our tour guide was pretty monotone, and although his voice was lively, he sounded as though he was an audio recording. One too many tours through the castle, I think! The tour only lasts about 30 minutes but I’d still say it was worth the 12€ to see the inside of the palace. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live there… I bet those views never get old.

The bridge gives you a fantastic look out onto the castle and the mountains. I took so many pictures up here… I don’t think I could have photographed that castle any more… it was just such a cool view! I’m not really very good at describing scenes too well… my vocabulary is terrible… I’ll just say, it was beautiful. You should go! It is a pretty old bridge, though, and some of the wooden floor boards moved a bit when you stepped on them and Andy was pretty uncomfortable :P After a brief conversation about yield stresses on bridges and who comes up here to evaluate the bridge strength and its wear over time… it was time to head back down the mountain to pick up some souvenirs and catch our 6pm train back to Munich.

View of the castle from Marienbruke! SO worth the extra 15-20 minutes of walking!

Finally a picture together! So glad we asked someone, this was worth it :)

This is a non-zoomed shot straight down. Andy was so unhappy with me for making him do this... I love this picture though :P

Completely worth spending an entire day on this trip

Andy wanted off that bridge as soon as we were done :P 

One our way down, we reached a point where there where two signs pointing to the town… one pointed to a gravel path and said 30 minutes, and the other pointed to the road we came up on and said 40 minutes. So we’re like, wow, a short cut. You can see where this is going right? Because what’s a Europe trip without any questionable short cuts… After heading down the gravel road for a bit, we hit a fork and there’s no sign about which way to go and this path is obscure and isn’t on my freebie map I grabbed from the ticket office. Having a general idea of where the town was, we picked the right fork because it seemed more direct. Part way down we run into two Germans heading up the trail and they comment about how it’s muddy up ahead and I wasn’t wearing the right shoes. We figure, one patch of mud… we can handle that. All of a sudden, the gravel road ends and it’s just a mud trail through the woods on a steep, downward incline! I’m in a dress and sandals and Andy’s in shorts and flip flops… excellent. We’re at a point where if we turn around, we’ll probably miss our train, although we’ve pretty much already accepted missing it, at this point. I tip toe on tree roots and rocks, trying so hard not to slip because a fall on this mud would have been disastrous (remember how much it had been raining?? Lots of mud…). On the plus side, all the rain that created this awful, muddy pathway, also made the waterfalls and creeks a lot more fast and prominent. It really was a beautiful hike – my parents would have loved it. Appropriate hiking wear is necessary, though! After our treacherous, 30 minute mud path adventure, the trail spits us out right onto the road. The path is so small that people on the road probably were wondering why these two random people just popped out of the thick of the woods.

Bit of a wrong turn??!!

The road! Finally! Andy has a few pics of this path on his phone... I don't have many because I was concentrating so hard on not falling to my muddy end. He found it mainly entertaining and spent some time capturing me looking horrified... watch facebook more pictures :P

We had 25 minutes to get to our train, at this point, so we had already given up. We still needed to ride the bus back to the station (we didn’t even know how often they came) and Andy wanted to buy this sweet beer stein they were selling at a souvenir shop. We got his stein and ended up having to wait another 25 minutes for the bus… by the time we got to the train station we barely had any time before the 7pm train back to Munich. We didn’t want to take this train because it wasn’t direct and took an extra 30 minutes. The schedule on the computer didn’t even tell you what station to connect through, either. We found out by asking around when we were already on the train.

We got back to Munich well after dark – maybe 9:30 – and got a late dinner. Neither of us felt much like drinking or socializing tonight… or even sitting in the lounge on the wifi. I’ll have to post this tomorrow morning (the rooms don’t have internet, just the lobby and atrium… there was a ton of people down there too, we didn’t feel like dealing with it tonight). Two of our roommates just got back and are making a serious racket. I just don’t understand people who let doors slam… ever… not just at night when you know people are relaxing/sleeping… just ever. But anyway, today was an amazing day. Too bad no crazy velociraptor geese… I guess they don’t like flying that high.