Neuschwanstein Castle

Hallo everyone! I’m writing now from my little hotel room in the adorable wine town of Mittenwald, Germany. It’s located at the foot of beautiful mountains in a more rural area of Germany. Everything is green and the trees are starting to change colors. It’s partly cloudy but the weather is just perfect. It’s the perfect place to just relax for the day. After the craziness that is big cities like Munich, this Idaho kid needs some peace, quiet and wine. Excellent combo, if you ask me.

I’m also excited to have a room to myself. Hostels are a fun environment full of young travelers just like me who are hoping to save a little money (average nightly cost is anywhere from $18-30 in hostels here in Bavaria). But they can also be exhausting in some ways. If you choose to sleep in dorms like I have been, you never quite know who you’ll end up sharing a room with. The first two nights I stayed in a 12-bed mixed dorm. I loved meeting all my dorm mates, but half the guys snored. And one young couple sleeping in a bunk near me were, um, doing things I really wished they wouldn’t. I’m told that kind of behavior is rare, though. The rest of the time I’ve been in 4- or 6-bed mixed dorms, and they’ve been so much nicer. Much quieter. Though the last several 4-bed dorms have included three men and me, which was a little weird, but I needn’t have worried. They were gentlemen. Plus, when you have a bunch of strangers together in a room of bunk beds, everyone pretty much ignores each other. And we’re rarely in the room. Only to sleep. The rest of the time, we’re all out doing our own thing. Except one time I went in my shared dorm during the day and I accidentally walked in on some poor fellow in boxers hurriedly trying to change his clothes. Whoops.

So I’m really looking forward to a quiet night alone to recharge my batteries a bit. Anyway, I digress. Back to the story of my adventures yesterday. 🙂 I saw a castle! A real live, super cool castle called Neuschwanstein Castle (or Schloss Neuschwanstein) tucked away in the mountains. It was just like a fairytale. I suppose that’s why it was the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was also featured in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This place is gorgeous. And the architecture and intricate paintings and wood carvings on the inside are just incredible.

Schloss Neuschwanstein! This is the view from St. Mary’s bridge.

Front entrance of the castle.

I saw the castle on a tour through a group called Mike’s Bike Tours (though we didn’t bike). I, along with 30 ish other people, rode on a bus for two hours out to Schwangau, the little town right next to the castle. We had lunch at a little restaurant. I ordered a tall King Ludwig wheat beer, which was recently voted the best wheat beer in the world. It was quite tasty, indeed. I ate pork sausages and sauerkraut, and sat at a table with three young ladies from America (D.C., Cincinnati, and Chicago) and an older couple from Manchester, England. It was very nice. After lunch, we all rejoiced in the brief break from the drizzling rain and ran for the nearby alpine slide. I couldn’t resist. I love alpine slides. This one wasn’t very steep, so we couldn’t go all that fast, but it was still fun and picturesque.

Heading up to the starting point of the alpine slide.

Next, we all hiked up to St. Mary’s bridge, which is the best place to get pictures of the castle (like the one posted above). Our tour guide, Brad from South Africa, warned us it would be strenuous and man, he wasn’t lying. As my calves burned and my breath ran ragged, it was made very clear to me just how out of shape I am. But it was all worth it to see the that view of the castle. Getting pictures, though, was like playing Tetris. The bridge was packed with tourists, all weaving in and out of each other trying to get to a good spot to take a photo or selfie.

You can see St. Mary’s bridge on the left side of this photo. I took this from one of the castle balconies.

Then we took a tour inside the castle, which lasted 25 minutes. It was led by an old, no-nonsense type of German woman. She kind of reminded me of Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, only taller and with a deeper voice. We walked through all the finished rooms in the castle, including the throne room, King Ludwig II’s apartment and dressing room, the kitchen, and more. The king died just four months after he had moved into his beloved castle, and only about 16 of 60 total rooms were completed. When he died, the Bavarian government took it over and made it into a museum. They took it because King Ludwig II died owing the government a lot of money. He spared no expense in the construction of his castles (there were several).

King Ludwig II was a strange fellow. His parents were very strict and kept him and his brother completely isolated as children. His brother ended up going mad. Ludwig was very effeminate (presumed to be gay), and couldn’t stand being around people. His parents died when he was 18 and he had to take over the throne with very little training from his father. He hated it and wanted to abdicate, but the only other person eligible for the job was his insane brother. So he stuck it out until his death around age 40.

Now, the story of his death is still shrouded in mystery. And the supposed cause of death will vary depending on who you ask. The Bavarian government likes to say he drowned, because his body was found in a lake, along with the body of one of his psychiatrists (the shrink was there because Ludwig’s ministers claimed he was insane and wanted him out as king. The plot thickens). But the man was over six feet tall and the lake was only a couple feet deep. Others say he was shot in the back. Some say he murdered the psychiatrist and then drowned himself. Guess we’ll never know. The dude was weird, and that’s about all we know for sure. But his castles are beautiful!

I was super disappointed I couldn’t go paragliding over the castle like I had really wanted to. The clouds were way too thick and low-hanging. We could only see the bottom third of the mountains. Plus, the rain made it even more dangerous. Ah well. Guess I’ll have to come back someday and try again! After the tour, I bought a pretzel that was literally as big as my face. Giant pretzels are a thing here, and they’re delicious. As for the ring on my left hand, it’s a fake engagement ring I bought from Walmart. This was a recommendation from a friend of mine who has also done a lot of solo travel. I would recommend it for any solo female travelers out there!

Pretzel!

When we got back to Munich, I wandered around town exploring some more. I found a secondhand store (it was closed) that had dirndls for sale (the traditional Bavarian dresses). I’ve been wanting to buy one, but they were all at least 180€. Nope. Not happening. I got back to my hostel around 9:30 p.m. and sat in the lobby trying to type up my other blog post on my phone using the spotty wifi. The hostel computers were broken so I couldn’t use those. A 20-year-old guy sat down across from me and introduced himself. Hassan from The Netherlands. He was in town for a business conference. His colleague, Mohammed from the U.K., also joined us. It was an interesting conversation. Hassan said I looked German and he didn’t guess I was American until I spoke. And even then he said I sounded Dutch at first! Mohammed said he always likes traveling to the United States because the people are so friendly. That was nice to hear 🙂

Tschus, friends.