Neuschwanstein Castle - where dreams are made of....or something.

"Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th century Bavarian castle. Located in Germany, near Hohenschwangau and Füssen in southwest Bavaria, the castle was built by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse. It is the most photographed building in Germany, although photography of the interior is not permitted, and is one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations."

…wikipedia you are awesome…

I officially have driven on the Autobahn! I rented a car though work at a rental agency called Sixt…well for a few reasons. One, I wanted to go to the Neuschwanstein castle…and two I wanted to drive on the autobahn. I knew I had two choices of cars when we made the reservation, either a VW Golf or a Mercedes A-Class. I was hoping for the Mercedes because I’d rather drive cars you can’t get in the states…obviously. But when I got there they had neither car, so I was given a Peugot 307. A little 5 door hatch, 4 cylinder diesel motor with a manual transmission. Manual…oh yes it has been too long. The sound if completely different from regular unleaded engines, and it is turbo so you get a slight whisling noise when you accelerate…in fact they engines almost sound “clunky” compared to cars in the states…but they are cleaner and more efficient…yada yada.

I went to the castle with Reijo, a Finnish friend of mine from work. It took about two hours to get there, driving though the German countryside full of barns, cows, farmland, and rolling green pastures for miles. Lots of pine trees also…it reminded me of Michigan, or even Flagstaff a little bit. Driving on the road proved to be not as difficult as I had imagined. And I don’t think the section we were on was the fastest, although I was traveling at about 80 mph in the right lane and cars were flying past me at over 100 mph easily.









As far as the castle goes, it is not very big from far away, maybe because the surrounding mountains trump it in size. The castle had a mystical early morning fog at the top when we got there…I was still hoping the rain would hold off even though it had been grey skies all morning. You have to be on a tour to get into the castle, and they don’t allow photography inside (strange). So we got our tickets and did the touristy thing. From what I’ve heard this castle inspired the Disneyworld castle. It actually is only 1/3 completed…it was never finished because of King Ludwig II’s death (murder - look it up). They deposed him by saying he was legally insane, then they found him dead in shallow water two days later with his doctor also dead, and ruled it as a drowning, sound fishy? Anyhow…walking around this castle seems like you are at an amusement park…it’s just not as old as other castles and does not really have any history to speak of, being only 150 years old. It basically was ‘built’, lived in for a year by the king, then opened for public tours 6 weeks after he was killed. So anyhow I snapped a few photos…but the main one of the castle is from Mary’s Bridge, behind the castle looking outward to the country.





More to come later. Have a nice day!

parker