EuroMegavacation Episode 8 - The King's Castles: Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstein Castle

When I traveled to Germany in 2002, I visited Neuschwanstein Castle (Schloss Neuschwanstein) with my tour group.  I remember certain parts vividly--for example, coveting King Ludwig II's elaborately carved canopy bed and puzzling over the improbable, manmade, indoor cave/grotto.  Still!  It was 20 years ago!  So, while Neuschwanstein was one of the few "repeats" for me during the Euromegavacation, it felt like a whole new experience sharing it with Matt instead of a gaggle of teenagers.  Plus, Matt and I saw the view from the Marienbrücke (Queen Mary's Bridge) and toured Hohenschwangau Castle (Schloss Hohenschwangau) next door, too.  I didn't do any of that in 2002.  Checking out Hohenschwangau Castle was actually even cooler than the tour at the significantly more well-known (Walt Disney-inspiring) Neuschwanstein.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Hohenschwangau village

We arrived in the village of Hohenschwangau in the valley below the Kings' Castles a little after 8am.  In addition to the bed and the fake cave inside the castle, I recalled the area around Neuschwanstein as exceptionally beautiful.  So, Matt and I wanted time to explore a bit before we had to get on a schedule, as it was.  We booked our castle tours months in advance.  Schloss Hohenschwangau at 9:55am, a nice long break for lunch, and then Schloss Neuschwanstein at 2:55pm.  Our luck continued to hold in that the weather that day was simply perfect.

A Mute Swan on the Alpsee.

Since we had time to spend wandering, we followed a trail through the village and then along the shore of the Alpsee into the woods beyond.  (Another German-language sidebar:  See means lake.)  A pair of swans was at the lake, reflecting their majestic beauty on the surface of the water alongside the mountains.  The sunlight would break through the puffy white clouds, revealing the lake to be a magnificent sapphire.  I think we only saw one other person by the lake at that morning hour--a silver-haired skinnydipper!  Eventually, Matt and I turned back and leisurely made our way to Hohenschwangau Castle to catch our tour.   

Alpsee with Hohenschwangau Castle in the distance.

We stopped a few times on our way up the hillside to the castle.  There was an overlook of the village and the valley.  We sat on the bench there for a minute.  We popped into The Chapel of Christ the King on our way up, too.  After the Cologne Cathedral, St. James's Church in Rotheburg, and Matt's recent run-in with rococo in Füssen, this chapel at Hohenschwangau was tremendously unadorned and plain, fairly unremarkable.  It did have good windows though, which I later learned is because the building was previously the castle's "orangery," or greenhouse for oranges and other citrus fruits.  This was a new term for me--orangery.

Matt "taking a gander" at this goose fountain in the Castle Garden at Hohenschwangau Castle.  Credit for the pun goes to our friend, Derek. 

Matt and I arrived in the Hohenschwangau courtyard with plenty of time to spare.  There is an impressive fountain of the Virgin Mary there.  Plus, we could take in more details on the exterior of the castle from up close.  The brick patterns around the windows were especially cool to me--and the frescos.  We popped into the gift shop, but didn't buy anything.  We followed a path from the courtyard to the Castle Gardens, where there are a couple more cool fountains--and some pretty grand views over the lake.  When the sun was shining brightly, the yellow of the castle walls seemed to glow.

One of the gates at Hohenschwangau Castle.

The tour of Hohenschwangau Castle was excellent.  The guide spoke crisp and clear English.  The tour group was small.  We estimate perhaps 12-15 people.  It had a leisurely pace, permitting us to really examine the details in each room we visited--furnishing, paintings, architecture, and all.  Since it wasn't a full tour group, we could move about pretty freely, circling back to look at some especially cool feature.  Matt and I learned so much about Crown Prince Maximillian and his family.  It was a tremendous introduction to the history of the region that added real depth to both castle tours.  

The view from the garden at Hohenschwangau Castle.

Schloss Hohenschwangau was documented as early as the 12th century.  The castle passed through many hands before it eventually fell into ruin through war.  In 1832, Crown Prince Maximillian bought it.  He had it rebuilt and restored according to the original plans and the castle became the summer residence of the royal family--Maximillian, his wife, Marie, and their sons, Ludwig and Otto.  Queen Marie of Bavaria liked to hike in those mountains--a fact I found very captivating.  Maximillian and Marie both lived at Hohenschwangau until their deaths.  Their son, King Ludwig II, who succeeded his father on the throne, built his fantasy castle, Neuschwanstein, next door and moved out.  Hohenschwangau Castle was turned into a museum in 1913.    

The fountain in the courtyard at Hohenschwangau Castle.

The enormous mural paintings stand out in my mind's eye when I think of Hohenschwangau.  There was a battle scene that had to be nearly life-size.  Of course, it was a nice, sanitized version of war.  Painting bloody wounds was considered poor taste.  One of the artists actually painted himself into one of these murals as a sort of IYKYK Where's Waldo.  That gave me a smile.  It seemed like a modern thing to do, but pranksters are timeless.

Matt approaches one of the Hohenschwangau Castle gates.

The king's library chair was my favorite piece of furniture.  It was basically a royal LaZBoy recliner.  It had two headrests, a footrest that pulled out from the base, and a mounted holder for the book.  It was functional and beautiful.   King Maximillian had a servant turn the pages for him, even.  That seems a bit much, but...  My second favorite furnishing was an elaborately carved, dark, wooden standing desk.  It had all these great little cubbies and compartments, plus fancy edgework from top to bottom.  It was placed by a window with an epic view and I bet it made a fantastic place to write letters.

The view from the courtyard at Hohenschwangau Castle.

Schloss Hohenschwangau felt like a truly lived-in place.  Neuschwanstein is more of a playhouse.  Hohenschwangau was a home--an ornate, posh, elaborate home, but a home nonetheless.  It was filled with (fancy) beds the family actually slept in, (fancy) chairs they actually sat in, (fancy) china cups they actually drank from.  I thought that was really neat.  Like I said, we learned a lot on this tour, in addition to admiring a lot of beauty.

A picnic lunch on a bench near the Alpsee.

After the tour, we walked back down to the village.  We picked up a couple of bottles of beer to go with lunch and wandered back to the Alpsee for a picnic.  There were a bunch of people by the lake now, but all in pairs or family groups.  It was still quiet and relaxed despite it approaching noon.  Again, we felt blessed by the weather and the lack of crowds.   We ate our sandwiches on a bench and watched the swans.  We felt pretty pleased with ourselves for scheduling a picnic in such a pretty place.  

Looking toward Hohenschwangau from our picnic spot by the Alpsee.

The star of the morning was Hohenschwangau.  The star of the afternoon was Neuschwanstein.

Upper courtyard at Neuschwanstein Castle.

Construction of Schloss Neuschwanstein began in 1869, but the castle was never completed.  King Ludwig II died before his fantastic vision of a medieval knight's castle could be completed.  His death in 1866 is shrouded in mystery and we learned a couple of versions of it from guides, books, and interpretive signs.  Ludwig II had mental/social issues that made him ill-suited for such high-stakes responsibilities and public life.    Ludwig II wanted to create a medieval wonderland of sorts to be his private residence where he could get away from it all--and that was Neuschwanstein Castle.  

Turrets and towers from inside the lower courtyard at Neuschwanstein.

It is a sort of show castle.  It wasn't built for strategic or defensive purposes, but aesthetic ones.  Some say this makes its moniker "castle" not really apt.  Matt and I actually did some digging into the differences between palaces and castles because of this point.  I've seen the terms "historicist" or "romanticist" used in describing this castle.  It was built in the style of various periods that Ludwig II idealized.  Even though he was a hardcore loner in his adult life--he would sleep all day and stay up all night, sometimes sitting alone in his candle-filled ballroom, which I find a tragic mental image--the castle was opened to the public almost immediately after his death and now sees more than a million tourists a year.  Which is a bit ironic.

Matt soaking in the view!  Hohenschwangau Castle is near the center of the shot.  The Alpsee is the larger body of water on the left.

With full bellies and happy hearts, we left the shores of the Alpsee behind and started up the very steep (but mostly shady) trail to Marienbrücke.  This bridge offers what is considered THE quintessential view of Neuschwanstein Castle.  Ludwig II ordered the construction of this iron bridge because he loved the view of his dream castle from the wooden bridge originally built over the Pöllat Gorge by his father as access for hikers and hunters.  It was sunny and humid.  Matt and I had worked up a good sweat by the time we reached the bridge, but that's okay because...we found the crowds!

Me--being dazzled by the view--from the Marienbrücke.

This particular view of Neuschwanstein is so popular (and striking) that we had to join a queue of people waiting for their turn on the bridge.  Since we were hot, this little breather was actually kind of nice.  I believe this was the first time we'd had to wait in any sort of line.  Even then, we probably only waited five minutes.  There was a hurdy-gurdy player busking for the captive audience.  I didn't know what the heck he was playing.  I had to ask him.  I'd never seen a hurdy-gurdy before, though I recognized the term.  It was really cool.

Springtime Germany was SO green!

There were security personnel at the bridge keeping a headcount so that the bridge wouldn't get overcrowded.  Matt and I worked up the queue until we were given the green light to begin our passage across the bridge.  It was not only a fantastic view of the castle, but a wonderful vantage from which to see the gorge, lakes, villages, and mountains, too.  We walked across the bridge and back, stopping in the middle for prolonged gazing at the almost unreal scene before us.  It was all so beautiful.  The white castle, the green trees and fields, the blue sky, the teal lake.  Ohhhhhhh, it was a sight to behold!

Matt and Neuschwanstein from the Marienbrücke.  Look at the water in the background!  And that big, blue sky!

Then the security staff did a walk-through, hustling people off the bridge so the next batch could come through.  It was a trip.  So, we took the hint and left the bridge.  

Matt's duet with the hurdy-gurdy man!

We stopped to talk to the hurdy-gurdy man.  He asked Matt to sing a song with him.  Matt turned the crank, the other guy did the fingerwork, and we all sang (a rather bad version) of "On the Road Again."  Turns out, Matt and I don't know the lyrics that well.  But, oh, it was fun.  We dropped some money in his basket and headed on down the trail to Neuschwanstein.  

Matt and I reveling in our perfect day and the absolutely gorgeous countryside.

The view was astonishing at all points along the way.  The lakes sparkled like gems.  The farm fields and meadows were so green.  We could see a small village church in the distance and reminisced about St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Detwang.  The sky was intermittently filled with a scattershot of hang gliders and hot air balloons.  Everywhere we looked, there was cool stuff to see.  In the morning, Neuschwanstein had been in the shadows, but as the sun rose to its zenith, the stones became almost blindingly white.

Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is the view of the opposite side of the castle as seen from the classic Marienbrücke angle. 

We arrived a bit too early for our tour timeslot, but that just gave us ample time to admire the outside from every possible angle.  We entered the castle courtyard 45 minutes before our tour and enjoyed seeing the castle from yet another new angle.  We climbed the stairs to the upper courtyard.  Here we could see the footprint of one of Ludwig II's unfinished projects.  He intended to have a chapel built in the upper courtyard.  The footprint of the planned construction was visible in the paving stones.  

Upper courtyard at Neuschwanstein.  As mentioned, the proposed footprint for the chapel is designated with the larger, more rectangular paving stones (visible primarily on the right). 

The view of the castle from the courtyard is pretty neat.  Turrets and towers surrounded me.  We also caught a glimpse of the Marienbrücke.  We'd see it from a few castle windows, too.  That was cool--seeing all the people on it, knowing they were looking at the castle as Matt and I had been not long before. 

The Marienbrücke spans the Pöllat Gorge in the distance, as seen from the windows in Neuschwanstein.

The timeslot for our tour of the castle was called, and we joined our tour group.  This group was significantly bigger than on the morning tour of Hohenschwangau, duble or even triple.  Never the less, Matt and I thoroughly enjoyed the guided tour of Neuschwanstein.  It did have a few more pitfalls though (almost all of which are driven by Neuschwanstein's overall greater popularity with visitors)..  For one thing, since the group was so large and tour groups leave every five minutes (and so are only one room apart in the castle) they gave us all a sort of radio device so we could hear our tour guide.  The guide spoke into a microphone and we could hold the receiver by our ear so that even those in the very back learned all the fantastic details about Ludwig II and his dream castle.  The tour moved at a notably quicker pace than at Hohenschwangau.  I would have liked to take another lap around the rooms, scoping out all the details.  That wasn't really possible though.  Lastly, our tour guide had a much thicker accent and, coupled with the radio transmitter thingee, that made it tricky for me to catch everything he said.  I just leaned into it.  I focused on what I was seeing and tried to catch as much as I could hear. 

A view from the double-decker balcony on the west end of Neuschwanstein Castle.

Because what I could see was simply incredible.  Neuschwanstein is so pretty that it is basically unbelievable.  Which makes sense since it was designed specifically for that effect!   (Plus, it was pretty high-tech for its time, too.  Though that interested me less than all the pretty-ness.)

Looking down on the lower courtyard from the upper courtyard at Neuschwanstein.  Matt is leaning against the wall to the left of the big archway, waiting for our tour to kick off.

In the completed sections, there is no plain/unadorned surface to be found.  Tapestries, gilt carvings, wood carvings, mirrors, and paintings from wall to wall, floor to ceiling.  The painted murals are nothing short of spectacular.  A lot of the paintings throughout the castle depict legends and myths since that was a particular fascination for King Ludwig II.  One corridor we walked down had orange, green, and, blue stripes and swirls painted on every archway.  There was one room that had more than 300 swans (a royal symbol) depicted throughout its decor and architecture.  They were on the doorknobs, woven into the curtains, on the candelabras, the chairs, the wallpaper.  There were swans everywhere.

A groovy vine-covered building down in the village of Hohnschwangau.

The elaborately painted Throne Room leaps to mind when I think back on Neuschwanstein now.  Inspired by Byzantine churches, the Throne Room really seems to drive home how much the Kings were synonymous with God.  Murals depicting Jesus, the disciples, saints, angels, palm trees, columns, archways, and more cover every square inch of the walls and ceilings.  The whole room radiates with a golden vibrancy. It kind of glowed in there.  The floor is one of the grandest mosaics I've ever seen.  The chandeliers are gold and four storeys tall (though, sadly, I think Ludwig II died before they were hung).     

Taking photos was verboten (forbidden) on the guided tours, hence the largely exterior photographs.  I bought a postcard as a consolation.  So, how about this bedroom, eh?!?!?!  

I coveted Ludwig II's fancypants carved wooden bed just as much--or more--than I did in 2002.  Back then, I didn't appreciate how much the fanciful topper on the bed is reminiscent of the elaborately carved wooden altars found in German churches.  That was a cool tie-in that was lost on me as an 18-year-old.

One of the prettiest overlooks I've ever seen.  Another snapshot from the double-decker balcony on the west end of Neuschwanstein Castle.

At the very end of the tour, we were turned loose on an elevated balcony jutting out from the west end of the castle.  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  What a view!   I could have gazed at it for days!  It was funny--as we walked up to the castle before our tour, Matt and I had seen this very balcony and commented on how that'd be a cool place to hang out.  So it was a pretty fabulous cherry on top, a grand finale for the remarkable King's Castles experience.

Walking back down from the Neuschwanstein to the village of Hohenschwangau. 

We made our way out of the castle and began the walk back to the bus stop in the village.  It was such a perfect day and we were very exhilarated.  From the tranquil morning watching swans on the lake, touring the historically rich Hohenschwangau, our relaxing lunch and hike through such a beautiful landscape, touring the grandiose Neuschwanstein, and then back to Füssen again--every bit of it went so perfectly and was so lovely.  It was a grand day trip, for sure.

A treelined street on the bus ride back to Füssen at the end of the day.