Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Once upon a time, in the late 1800's there lived a boy who would be king. He spent his youth dreaming of a fairy-tale castle that he would one day build, a castle better and bigger than the "hunting lodge" (castle) of his father. This castle was dreamed up and first painted by an artist, not an architect. It would surpass by far the beauty of his father's castle, and his father would have to look at the beautiful creation higher on the hill. That castle is Neuschwanstein, as seen above. His father's castle is called Hohenschwangau and is pictured below:

Beautiful views from Hohenschwangau:

King Ludwig lived in his dream castle for only 172 days....he was declared mentally unfit to rule Bavaria and met an untimely (and highly speculated) death at the Starnbergersee just a few days after being removed from his beloved home. The castle remains unfinished, but what you do get to see on the tour (including hundreds of swans hiding in the decor of both castles) is beautiful. During his life, Ludwig had a fondness for the romantic arts, and was a great patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Many of the rooms are decorated with themes of Wagner's operas.

Neuschwanstein is the basis for the Disney castle...and you cannot take any pictures inside-instead, you can go to the website and see the pictures provided. My favorite room is the gorgeous throne room, with it's animal motif mosaic tiled floor which took over 2 years to complete.

This was an easy day trip, about 2 hours by car from Munich...such beautiful countryside. We opted to hike to both castles, Hohenschwangau took about 10 minutes to reach and it took about 25 minutes up a steep hill to reach Neuschwanstein. We elected to come down the nature-oriented way (ok, we got a little lost...) and hiked down through the Pollat Gorge on slippery steel walkways.

Can dreaming of such beauty for so long drive one mad like it did Mad King Ludwig? That is for you to decide...