After our tour of Hohenschwangau we had about 2 hours to get to Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein Castle was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty's Castle.
This is the view of Neuschwanstein Castle from our drive up to the town. We had a little lunch before we made the trip up to the second castle. We didn't want to make the uphill hike in the cold, so we took a more relaxed approach to getting up the mountain.
The horse drawn carts are pretty reasonable at 6 euro each for Kim and I, Jonah was free. It was about a 10 min, or less, ride up to the top.
The views of the valley below are beautiful.
I imagine during the spring the lush green of the farmland below is breathtaking.
We had about 20 or 30 minutes to kill before our tour started so we killed some time by taking pics.
The pics just do not do justice of the mountains around the castle.
Castle entrance, its a panoramic shot the pic makes it look curved but its is straight across the front. King Ludwig started construction of his castle in 1869. The castle was drawn up by stage designer, Christian Jank. Ludwig was so controlling on the conception of the castle that it is regarded as his own creation rather than that of architect Eduard Reidel. This was one of the largest castle construction sites in the 19th century.
The view coming thru the main castle gates. In 1882 the castle basement and first floor was completed. Ludwig had it fully furnished and he moved in to watch over the rest of the construction.
Again, no photography is allowed inside the castle, so Google has been so kind as to provide the photos of the inside of the castle.
The kings study. 14 rooms, only 1/3rd of the castle, was finished before King Ludwig's mysterious death.
Ludwig's living room. Everything in the castle is just as it was when Ludwig was living here. The king and his family had a love affair with Swans. Every room in both castles has some sort of Swan in it. You can see the border surrounding the room under the ceiling joist has swans facing each other.
The Kings dining room. He was a very shy king, so I am guessing that is why the dining room table is so small. Down the hall he also had a telephone installed. He could call through two lines, one to his parent castle and the other to the post office.
The kings bedroom, the canopy of his bed resembles all the Gothic Church steeples seen throughout Bavaria. The detail of all the hand carved items throughout the entire room are awe inspiring. It took 14 master carvers over four years to complete the canopy alone.
The kings room also had running water from the mountain springs, the water would flow out of the beak of this pure silver swan.
The Kings dressing room.
Remember the king had the plans drawn up by a stage designer, part of the design was a cave (gratto), it was the hallway between the living room and the study. It could be lit with different and also had a running waterfall.
The largest room in the castle is the hall of the singers. It was never meant to entertain but to be more of a walk thru monument of the culture of knights and the romanticism of the middle ages.
The Throne room was very impressive, the ceiling is painted as the sun and the floor mosaic tiles are designed to showcase the animal kingdom.
The mosaic tile floor is very detailed, they have placed clear plexiglass over the floor so you can walk about the lower portion of the throne room with out messing up the floor.
The Kings Throne, but since the king died before it was finished a throne was never built. Ludwig saw himself as a mediator between God and the world. As you can see Jesus is above the throne to watch over the King along with the six sacred kings: Saint Louis of France, Saint Stephen of Hungary, Saint Edward the Confessor of England, Saint Wenceslaus of Bohemia, Saint Olaf of Norway and Saint Henry, Holy Roman Emperor.
The castle kitchen had hot and cold running water, a fresh fish pond, a pantry, oven, and built in china cabinet. The king was able to live here for 171 glorious days before he mysteriously died. In 1886, the Kings uncle Luitpold, had the King deemed insane with no formal diagnosis from a doctor. Only 3 days after his diagnosis, the King and the doctor assigned to watch over him where found dead in the waist high waters of Lake Starnberg. There is still controversy on if the kings death was murder or accidental drowning even though no water was found in his lungs during the autopsy. Only six weeks after Ludwig's death Luitpold ordered the palace open to paying visitors.
I had just enough light left in the day to run to Marienbrucke (Marys bridge) named after King Ludwig II's mother. I took a couple of pics from the suspension bridge. The bridge is actually older than the castle it was wood in 1845 and rebuilt with iron in 1866.
From here you can really see the Snow White Disney castle inspiration. Today there are over 1.3 million visitors each year. During the peak touring season it will get about 6000 people per day. In 2008 the total number of visitors topped over 60 million people. Just 2004 alone the revenues logged where over 6.5 million euro or over $8.8 million US! But I have to say I think it was well worth the money we spent. A trip I think that will last in our memories for a lifetime.
