Ludwig's Palaces

Monday began with an early start to make the drive south to see King Ludwig's palaces. We had to travel about 90 minutes from Munich through beautiful countryside and towards the Bavarian Alps.

We arrived in the town of Hohenschwangau in time for breakfast and then took the 10 minute walk up to the first castle - Hohenschwangau Palace. This was the childhood home of King Ludwig II and was a very nice castle to visit. It is in very good condition and all of the furniture and artifacts inside are originals. The tour took about 40 minutes to complete at which time we had to make our way up to our second stop of the day - Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein was the castle built by Ludwig II, his so called "Fairy Tale Castle". It is the building that was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle in the Disney story and was also listed as one of the 20 choices in the recent 7 Wonders of the World popularity contest. You have 3 options for getting up there - a 40 minute walk uphill; a 20 minute horse carriage ride or a 10 minute bus trip. We had received advice that the bus was the best option - it drops you close to Marienbrucke which has the best views of the castle and the valley, then you can walk downhill to the castle and after your tour, take a carriage ride down the hill. Well, this was the plan but the lines at the bus were relatively long so by the time we got to the top of the hill, we did not have the time to go to the bridge...so we walked downhill to the castle and planned to do the bridge later.

The tour of the castle was amazing. The rooms were immaculately decorated and of a standard equivalent to similarly themed rooms in places like the Vatican. Gold, marble, ivory everywhere, magnificant paintings and murals and even a room that resembled a cave. Unfortunately, Ludwig died at the age of 40 before he could finish all of the rooms, so there are a couple of unfinished rooms to walk through to end the tour. Even so, the 30 minute tour is a must if you are in this part of Germany.

Following the tour, we did in fact walk back up hill for 15 minutes to get to Marienbrucke. Again, this is a must see attraction. The view from here down to the castle is incredible. It is a little disconcerting though - you are up high above a waterfall and the floor of the bridge is made out of wooden beams that you can feel move beneath your feet as you are standing there. Add to this the fact that the tourists are all crammed on here and pushing past each other to get the best camera shot made it difficult with the kids. Next was the walk back down to the castle where we rode the carriage down to the village.

Considering that it was only about 2:00pm and that the kids were doing quite well (Fiona took a nap in Mindy's sling during tour #1), we decided to take the 45 minute drive to see another of Ludwig's palaces - Linderhof.

Contrasted with Neuschwanstein, where Ludwig only lived for 6 months before his death, Ludwig lived at Linderhof for a number of years. Much like the other two castles of the day, you had to be taken on a guided tour of Linderhof. The interior was probably even more spectaular than the earlier two castles. Similar themes were seen - I think Ludwig might have liked gold. After the tour we had a little bit of time to see the gardens and we wandered up to the "Venus Grotto". When we arrived we found out that we required another ticket...so I had to limp (my knee went out a few days ago) back down the hill to the ticket office. I made it back in time for the tour and it was also quite interesting. Essentially it is a man-made cave where Ludwig used to go to listen to musical performances, sometimes getting paddled around by his servants on a boat.

After the grotto, we wandered in the grounds for a little while where the kids, inspired by the Venus Grotto, decided to run around and pretend to be Greek godesses (Aphrodite and Nike). The grounds were also great - many fountains and gardens to see. Of particular note was the fountain in the main courtyard which erupts every hour. Quite a nice sight.

After all of this we were all exhausted so we limped our way back to the car and returned to Munich.