Germany: Neuschwanstein, May 12 Part 2

After our morning tour of Munich, we headed south of the city in route to Neuschwanstein via Brandon's hot sweaty car. Views of the Alps in the distance, as seen in this photo, highlighted the drive along back rural roads. Honestly, it was such a beautiful afternoon, and the views were quite spectacular. This is one of my favorite photo because it almost seems like the clouds touch the moutains.

Neuschwanstein is another fairly large tourist attraction, as it is the name of a castle, not actually the name of a town. This fairy tale castle was built by Ludwig II, former Bavarian ruler, between 1869 and 1886. The King only spent a few months here - apparently, he was declared insane and later found dead in a river. Suicide or murder? No one really knows.

There were only two points during the entire trip where I wanted to smack Brandon, and this afternoon brought the first. Brandon told me that we'd have to "walk up a small hill" in order to get to the castle itself. Brandon is, at times, a liar! Small hill, my ass. After a heavy lunch, he was so kind to leave us with just enough time for a brisk speed walk up this rather steep mountain. As you may recall from my departure retelling, I am clearly in no shape to be walking up steep mountainsides; by the time we reached the top, my calf muscles felt as if someone took a 40-pound mallet and smashed them repeatedly. Needless to say, it took me a while to appreciate being at the top of the mountain.

Once I was over my pain and misery, we were able to take a tour of Neuschwanstein. Most of the castle was never finished inside, but we were able to tour a bedroom, a living room, a chapel and a concert hall, all of which were fairly elaborately painted and decorated. As you can see in the photo, it is quite an amazing castle. I mean, I still don't understand how an insane person can think this up - seems pretty spectacular to me! Walt Disney seemed to agree, as it is believed this castle was his inspiration for the famous Cinderella's castle. That's some good random trivia knowledge; I hope it helps you someday.

Another interesting stop here is Marienbrucke, or Mary's Bridge, which is where I took the photo of the castle. You can freak yourself out on this bridge, standing over a huge gorge between the mountains. It's seriously insane - little wooden boards fastened on some tiny metal. I didn't think heights freaked me out, but with all of the tourists trying to take photos, it was all very dramatic. Still, pretty amazing.

In this area is another castle called Hohenschwangau, which is much older. Apparently, Napolean destroyed it, but it was later restored (as is most of Germany for some reason or another). We didn't tour this one but we could see it very well from the bridge and from many stops along the treacherous mountain walk. So I was able to get a pretty great photo of this as well. These castles provided some seriously amazing sightseeing. We had an adventurous day near the castles, and as previously noted, I got in a pretty serious leg workout as well.