Saturday, October 2, 2010

King and Queen for a Day

Today we hit the ground running bright and early (despite a late bedtime) on our way to visit the famous castles of King Ludwig II, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  After grabbing a quick breakfast to go from the hotel, we were on our way to the train station.  This was our first experience using the trains in Munich, and it proved to be a success!  Here's Kim, waiting for the train...


We were heading to Füssen, located on the border between Germany and Austria to the south, a two hour train ride away from Munich.  The train ride was absolutely beautiful, although the train itself was a bit gross from all the Oktoberfest attendees, who we saw (already drunk) heading to the festival around 7 AM!  That's commitment to your culture (or some silly Americans, one of the two)!

Since we didn't have a reservation for the castle tours, we sprinted (literally) to try to beat people from the three busloads that arrived all at once.  Our guidebook had told horror stories of long lines, but the wait proved to be not too bad.  While we waited to take the first tour of Hohenschwangau, we explored some of the quaint shops nearby.  We also took some pictures of the Neuschwanstein Castle from afar.


Matt also contemplated purchasing this 12 Liter (!) stein...




After about an hour, it was time for the first tour of Hohenschwangau, which was the boyhood home of Ludwig (before he built Neuschwanstein).  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside of either castle, so we only have pictures of the exterior.


The interior of the castle was absolutely amazing, but nothing compared to where we were headed next.  A short hike up the hill led us to Neuschwanstein Castle.  Ludwig inherited the throne of Bavaria at the ripe old age of 18 and soon after began constructing Neuschwanstein.  King Ludwig II spent 17 years building Neuschwanstein (and only finished about 1/3 of his original plans for the castle).  When Ludwig died at the young age of 40, he had only lived in the castle for 172 days!  Within 6 weeks of his death, the castle became a property of the state, who converted it to the museum it is today in order to pay for the debts Ludwig had accrued in its construction.  But enough about this history...how about some pictures?!?






Not only was the interior and exterior of the castle amazing, its 360 degree views were also incredible...

(Note Hohenschwangau in the distance)



The castle is also situated above a huge gorge, where Ludwig constructed a steel cantilevered bridge which can be traversed for the sole purpose of looking at the Neuschwanstein Castle.  Seems arrogant, but we appreciated it today!




After checking out the bridge, we walked along the gorge back towards the train station.  We snapped a few more quick pictures along the way.





Finally we made it back to the train station for the two hour ride back to Munich.  When we arrived, we were ready for dinner and decided to check out this Afghani restaurant called Lemar.  The food was just so-so (sorry, no pictures as it was too dark inside).  One thing was proven tonight at dinner: the Germans drink beer just like they drink water (and charge the same for it too!)...


(3.50 E for Kim's Evian water, 3.50 E for Matt's Helles Lager)

Since we forgot to take a picture of the delicious dessert last night, we decided we HAD to go back and re-enact it for you all...we leave you with this:


 YUM!


Gute Nacht!

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