Munich Day 2 - Hohenschwangau,Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein

10/24/2012

We got up at 7am to go down to breakfast. Hotel Andra offers free breakfast and my, what a breakfast. Delicious! They had pineapple, grapes, avocado, ten types of cheese, different sausages, eggs, ham, waffles, cakes, pastries, caprese… I could go on and on. They had a breakfast basket with pretzels and assorted seeded breads. Angel made lunch sandwiches for us all with all the different cheeses and meats.

I pooed. ß Angel’s contribution

The earliest train from Munich to Fussen available for the Bayern ticket was the 9:51am train, which meant we wouldn’t get there until 11:54am. I was very nervous the whole time, as the transportation logistics seemed quite difficult… we’ve never been anywhere in Germany before. Based on our experience in Austria, they don’t speak English very well so it’s hard to communicate. I was afraid Germany would be the same way. I did not anticipate Germany would be worse than Austria… as you’d think that Germany is a much bigger, much more diversified country. The ticket machine in Germany, however, really hard to use… made the Austrian ticketing system seem like a breeze (Austria’s train system was voted best in Europe and you can tell why)! Austria’s ticket machines are relatively easy to use, with a variety of languages to chose from and the trains are clean and not smelly.

The German trains are dirty and the bathrooms look like they haven’t been washed in at least 30 years. They stink like no other! The ticket machine was hard to understand… they had 3 different types of Bayern tickets (Bavaria ticket, Bavaria bohmen ticket…)! We clicked on one that seemed most like what we wanted based on description, but it wasn’t it, as the price was wrong. We had to get a number and wait in line at the info ticket desk, but I was able to ask a worker on the side, who told us it was the Bavaria ticket we needed (the first option). The price was right (34 euros) so that’s the one we bought. The train departing on every odd hour has no change, but the train departing on every even hour has one change. I was aiming for no changes for our roundtrip, as I would have no clue whatsoever how to change.

Schloss Hohenschwangau

You have to sign the Bayern ticket after you purchase it and make sure it’s validated before you get on the train. Otherwise, you’ll be subject to a heavy fine. We signed it, but because I chose the option “valid for today,” there was no need to validate (I even asked a worker to make sure). We made the unfortunate decision to sit by the door, near the restroom. The doors do not close automatically, so every time someone went to the restroom, they would leave the door to the compartment open, which allowed cold drafts to come in… as well as the stink from all that urine!

Schwangau Village

We arrived at Fussen (the last stop), and were amazed at how many people were here. On a Wednesday. In late October! The train was pretty much full, and you could just see the sea of people all moving in the same direction to board the bus to the castles.

Bus 73 and 78 take you to the castles (from Fussen into Schwangau village) and the fare is included in the Bayern ticket. It’s a five minute drive up, but the bus driver will cram as many people into the bus as possible, so we were waiting at the bus stop for a good while. 

When we got to Schwangau, we jumped off the bus and darted for the ticket office, which was a five minute walk uphill from the bus stop. The tours are timed and do sell out, so we needed to make sure we got a good time. In the summer months, up to 6000 people visit per day so if you don’t have an advance reservation (1.80 euro/person additional fee), you might not be able to get in. Which would suck if you sat 2 hours on a train to get here, only to find out you can’t get in!

We got in the Neuschwanstein line (they divide the lines by Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau) because we needed to buy one additional Bavaria palace ticket. We thought about it overnight and decided to be honest and just spend the additional 40 euros for another Bavaria ticket. Otherwise, if you go up the mountain to the castles and the ticket holder decides you don’t look 17 or younger, they might not let you in. And you can only buy tickets at the ticket office at the base of the mountain (they don’t sell tickets at the top), so you’d have to go all the way down then climb up again. Which would be a big waste of time. They don’t advertise the Bavarian palace ticket here, because they want you to buy the King’s pass or Swan’s pass that is special to this area. You have to ask (or know to ask) in order to get the Bavarian ticket. Sneaky, sneaky.

The hike up

We bought 4 Hohenschwangau tickets, which are 12 euros each, but for some reason, he charged us 11 euros per person. Hohenschwangau is owned by the Wittelsbach heirs, so it is private property and not part of the Bavarian ticket. When I got to the front of the line, the tour for 12:50 was taken off the monitor and the next available time was 1:50. I asked if we could get in on the 12:50 and he was awesome enough to let us into that group. He set us up for the 12:50 tour of Hohenschwangau, which meant we had 30 minutes to climb to the top. The allocated time on the map said it would take 20 minutes to reach the top, and they warned us not to be late, so we practically ran up the steep mountain. The twenty minute allocation only took us 10 minutes! Although we were sweating like mad and I found it rather difficult to breathe…

The fortress was bought by King Ludwig II’s father. It was originally a medieval fortress in ruins but it took only 4 years to remodel and bring everything up to speed. Which is amazing, when you see how intricate and well-thought out the whole castle is now. The outside resembles an Italian villa, with fountains and breathtaking views of the mountains across, especially with the autumn leaves coloring the landscape a vivid image of orange and yellow and red hues. 

The tour lasts ½ hour in English. You have to wait for your tour to flash on the flatscreen monitor before you can insert your ticket into the ticket booth for admittance. The tour guide took us through the king’s rooms, the queen’s rooms, the servants’ quarters (which looked rather comfortable! For one person, it’s bigger than a college dorm room!). There are no paintings on the walls, as they painted directly onto the walls. The tour guide said that because the paintings were painted on the wall, and not on canvas, and because it’s pretty cold here, no touching up has been needed since the paintings were first painted.

There were lots of birthday presents on display. And these are crazy birthday presents… made of rubies, emeralds, ivory, gold-plated silver… lots of swan motives, which is the local royal sign in Bavaria. The king’s room was beautifully painted with a sun ceiling, but when Ludwig became king, he painted it as night with stars. The stars were able to “glow in the dark” so to speak, with oil lamps heating the other side, illuminating the ceiling like a night sky. All the murals his father had painted were of medieval heroism, albeit conveniently with no bloodshed in the battles. All this contributed to Ludwig’s romanticized version of medieval chivalry. And the older he grew, the more he withdrew, dreaming of his own ideal world. He lost his sovereign right to rule, and became a constitutional monarch, which also led to the reason why he withdrew.

There was a bed for notable guests, one of whom was Richard Wagner, who had a piano here of maple for his playing pleasures. Angel wondered if Ludwig and Wagner were lovers… they did seem to have a serious bromance going on. Sadly, you're not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so that's why I'm showing a bunch of exterior shots.

Lake Alpsee

From the view up here, you can see over the river to the other side, to the beautiful mountains of Austria. I guess the river was the border of the two countries? Ludwig’s mother was an avid mountaineering woman, which was considered weird in their times. She loved hiking up all the surrounding mountains and was familiar with them all (how?! It’s so massive we could get lost and never be found!). Every time she wanted to go hiking, all her ladies-in-waiting had to go with her. They were not amused.

After we were done with the tour, we walked down the mountain to take the bus up to Neuschwanstein. The bus departs from Hotel Lisl. The uphill fare is 1.8 euro, the downhill is 1 euro, but if you buy roundtrip, it is 2.6 euro, for a savings of 0.20 euro. I wanted to walk downhill, but Dad insisted on buying the roundtrip. I was afraid of him throwing a fit, so I bought the roundtrip, to consequences I’ll touch on later…

It was a 10 minute drive up the mountain. It’s high and steep and drops you off at Marienbruke, or Mary’s bridge. 

It’s a very shaky bridge and I felt like some of the boards were flimsy, especially for so high up an altitude. Some of the boards gave me the impression that if you add another person’s weight, it will seriously give way and you’ll both fall down, down into the ravine below.

Aerial view looking straight down from the bridge

There is a gushing river below with ragged rocks. On a clear day, you’re supposed to have a beautiful clear view of the castle directly across the mountain. Unfortunately, it was so foggy we could only see 10 feet ahead. We could barely see anything! Boooo! Angel was confused and kept complaining why were we up here because she has a fear of heights and there was absolutely nothing to see. It was only until after we left the bridge that I asked if she knew what she was supposed to be looking at? She replied “no.” Duh.

It was a 10 minute walk down to the base of Neuschwanstein. We stopped at the viewing platform to have lunch, of the delicious sandwiches Angel prepared. There was a cute little gift shop. It was freezing cold and Dad mentioned that the gift shop had a special deal: 5 euros for a Neuschwanstein mug + coffee or hot chocolate + 1 piece of cake. I immediately went to buy a mug with hot chocolate and a stracciatella cake enrobed in chocolate. The hot chocolate was waaaay better than Café Tomaselli’s in Salzburg! Plus, I get a mug commemorating my trip here and the cake was pretty good as well. Dad bought the same deal, with a cappuccino and Angel wanted a chocolate butter keks. She wanted it when I was buying mine, but I wouldn’t let her. It’s a cookie, for crying out loud. But then dad bought his and Angel got her cookie :T She gobbled it up immediately; Mom didn’t even know she bought it!

The bathrooms are free up at the castles, plus there are free ones next to the gift shop.

The tour started at 3:25pm and lasted ½ hour. It was guided. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take interior pictures here as well. We had to climb lots and lots of tiny wooden stairs-my, they had small feet in those days!

The huge singer hall painting in the back was of Wagner’s opera Parcival, with its glorified depiction of noble nature. It looked much like Disneyland’s Snow White ride. In fact, we think Disney must have visited here and was inspired by the interior decoration for his rides. A lot of the buildings surrounding Schwangau looked like they came straight out of Pinocchio:

The singer’s hall had 96 panels of pine wood with elaborate paintings on them. It made for excellent acoustics and was intended as a concert hall… for Ludwig’s ears only. But he never got to use it as he died before it was completed. He did not want any other person in his hall, but he was a fervid fan of music, as well as Richard Wagner’s patron, so you can imagine how seriously he took his music. Enough to build himself a giant ass hall just to hear the musicians play.

Courtyard of Neuschwanstein

In fact, in the construction of Neuschwanstein, as well as his intentions for later on, it seemed like he did not want anyone here with him. No strangers were admitted during construction of the castle, and he died before it was ever completed. I always wondered about one side of the castle, which had doors (the Knight’s bath) facing a steep drop down the mountain. Wouldn’t you just open the door and fall down then?

A model of Neuschwanstein showing the facade with the Knight's Bath 

But it turns out Ludwig had planned for a huge terrace there with stairs, which would explain the doors. But it was never completed. Only a third of the palace was ever completed. His throne room wasn’t even completed. For the knight’s bath, there were three stoves commissioned to heat the room, but Ludwig was dissatisfied with two of them so he hid them. He was an absolute perfectionist and kept on changing the plans. There was no queen’s room, as he never married. He was engaged to Sisi’s sister, Sophie, but he dissolved it to his great relief and spent the rest of his life building castles.

Courtyard

He dedicated many of the wall paintings in Neuschwanstein to Wagner’s operas. His bedroom took 14 wood carvers 4 years to complete the intricate woodwork lining the ceiling and his bed. He also had paintings here depicting Tristan and Isolde. There was even a man-made cave to resemble Venus Grotto, as well as a cute little corner tower conservatory to read in.

The last room we saw was the kitchen, with its stoves and copper cookware. It was a massive kitchen with all the latest technology… for only one person. He liked to be up at night, so the kitchen staff needed to be alert at night. The chef had a resting bed in the kitchen, enclosed off with glass, as well as a desk where he wrote the menus. The fashion of the time was elaborate dishes and Ludwig was no different. He ate French cuisine a lot, always with a dessert at the end. He loved dessert. The handwritten menus are still on display. One of the desserts was Glace Ananas a la Viennese.

At the end of the tour, we shopped the museum shop and watched a 15 minute video tour of Ludwig’s plans. He planned several other castles in complete detail but died before construction started, so these will remain forever encased in time as ideas. There was 3-D animation showing what Neuschwanstein would have looked like had everything been completed.

The hike down - it's actually a lot steeper than it looks!

We walked down to the bus stop hoping to catch the 5:05 train back to Munich. Unfortunately, we did not know that the last bus (which we paid for!) was at 4:45pm!!! So we had to walk down the steep mountain… a 30 minute walk. I kept grumbling that had I not listened to Dad, we would’ve saved .80 per person. We caught the 5:40 bus back to Fussen and the 6:05 train back to Munich. We got back at 8:08pm and went to the same durum shop as yesterday. While all the other durum restaurants were closed, this one is open till 2am every day. Not only that, but it was completely full inside!

We got back to the hotel to eat our to-go dinner. All of us were dreading taking a shower… there was no hot water!!! ;( When we left this morning, the lady at reception informed us that there was some construction work going on and we wouldn’t have hot water from 7pm tonight to 6am the next morning. Say whaaaat? You’d never get away with that in America! Totally blows! But alas, we’re in Europe, so the only thing to do is suck it up and go on with your day.

The parents used antibacterial wipes to “shower.” I used it as well, until I decided to try if there was any hot water left. Just enough for me to take a warm half-shower J I thought there would be enough left for Angel, but there wasn’t. Poor baby’s face is all burnt and red, she burned her hand the day we left for Europe making pancakes for me, and she injured her shin toting my crappy suitcase. Poor poor baby!