Neuschwanstein: More than Just the Disney Castle

When I told my parents that I was coming to Germany, and we worked out a plan to do our own trip afterward they asked me what I wanted to do. I told them that I didn't really care, I just wanted to relax and go along for the ride. Well, except for one thing. I had to see the Disney castle.

Ok, ok, make fun of me, but it's probably Germany's biggest attraction. All because of some guy named Walt Disney who copied it's structure for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland.

While the Disney thing was appealing, what really intrigued me about seeing Neuschwanstein was it's creator, commonly known as Mad King Ludwig. So I was really excited to take our little tour of the castle and hopefully buy some historical books on the King who built it.

My parents within the castle walls.

Unfortunately, just like Disneyland it was really expensive and had it's fair share of disappointments. Namely:

1. The hike to get to this place sucks. I'm not kidding, it's a steep walk from the parking and shopping in town. It's not too terribly long, but for this kid who had just spent a week walking all over Europe, my poor little calves were dying. Did I mention it was raining?
2. There are only like 10 rooms that are finished. Neuschwanstien was never completed. King Ludwig was declared insane, taken to Munich, and then died before he could finish the castle. The tour is incredibly short. I mean, don't get me wrong...some of the things you see are impressive and gorgeous....but there just isn't a lot of it. 
3. The so-called English speaking tour is incomprehensible. Our tour guide's German accent was really thick, and her voice didn't really carry. Couple that with a crying baby, and it was pretty frustrating. (We found out later that the tour guides are all just volunteers.)

So while the tour was kind of a bust, there were some fun highlights from the trip as a whole:

• Learning my mom is a beast. Remember that awful hike I told you about? Yeah, she left me and my dad in her dust and didn't turn back. haha I think a lot of people assume that my mom is kind of weak, but she always surprises me with her feats of strength both physically and emotionally.

• The horse drawn carriage ride down. So after a crappy hike up, we decided to just pay to take the horses down. And it was fun! Especially seeing all the people struggling to go up hill. haha

• The gift shop didn't disappoint. I told you all I wanted was to learn more about King Ludwig, and in the gift shop I found this awesome coffee table book. The history of Mad Kind Ludwig is an interesting one. He made his people pretty angry with his spending on all of his castles. (Neuswanstien was one of about 5 that he built for fun.) His advisers had him declared insane, and took him back to Bavaria's capitol, Munich. On his second night there, he took a walk with his doctor (you know, the one who declared him insane and had him removed from the throne) and they were later discovered dead in about 3 ft. of water, completely clothed, and with some signs of a fight. We still don't know exactly what happened.

• Hearing stories about when my parents lived in Germany.  There is a really beautiful waterfall just behind the castle, and you can see that there is a bridge in the mountains. This called Queen Mary's bridge, or Marienbruke. This is a great place to see the waterfall, and get an awesome picture of the castle. Apparently back in the day, this Bridge was wood, and didn't have the steel enforced railings and beams that it does now. So it was plastered with signs warning that death was a possibility if you were to fall. 

The Marienbruke bridge

Back when my dad was stationed in Germany, my mom's parents came to visit them. They decided to take the to Neuschwanstein as a highlight of their visit. My dad, being the adventurous soul that he is, took one look at the bridge and the Warning possibility of death sign and took off. Now I never met my grandpa, he died before I was born. But apparently he decided that he too wanted to be adventurous that day and took off after my dad. This of course freaked my grandma out, and it didn't help things when my dad returned alone. The way my dad tells it, my grandma was just sure that grandpa had fallen to his death and it was all my dad's fault. (Of course he returned a several minutes later and all was forgiven, but those few minutes of panic are one my dad will never forget!)

My mom and I on the Marienbruke bridge