Ludwig’s Crazy Castle

We all just got back from a great day in Neuschwanstein and I cannot believe how beautiful it was up there. The snow was fresh and white.

Because the snow had recently fallen and the path was slippery, the buses were not running. Therefore, we had to walk up this extremely steep and winding path up to the castle and I quickly realized that I did not wear the proper boots. Also, when we purchased our tour tickets, the cashier told us it was a forty minute walk and we would be unable to enter the castle until our tour. After going to the restroom, we embarked on the journey and after about five minutes my feet were frozen and my mom was taking off her jacket…pretty funny to have the two extremes. About fifteen minutes later, we see a little booth with wasser, gluhwien and bretzeln. We thought we were about half way to the castle, so my mom asks the vendor, “how far is the castle? Are we about half way?” All of a sudden the vendor gets a huge smile on his face and says, “you are two minutes away, look behind you.” Oops, we totally did not even see it, but the castle was pretty much next to us. Then I noticed a little restaurant to the left and suggested we grab something to eat and try to warm up as our tour was not for an hour. My mom and Brad got pea soup and sausage and I went with the hot chocolate.

Ludwig’s Castle is beautiful and does look similar to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. We learned during our visit that although the castle was designed to look medieval, it had several modern refinements, such as running water, hot air, and automatic flushing toilets. Also, King Ludwig had numerous swan icons throughout the castle as this was his favorite animal and is often known as the Swan King. The castle was actually far from completion when Ludwig passed away and has been open to the public ever since.

After walking around the grounds and taking photos, we decided to indulge in fresh doughnuts and gluhwien.
After doughnuts and gluhwien, we started down the path to head back to the train. We did stop to take these photos as the scenery was too beautiful to pass up.

Heading to dinner at Löwenbraukeller, hope my mom likes German food and bier.