Neuschwanstein

Mom always said to never get in a car with strangers, but then again she wasn't contemplating a 40 minute wait in sub-zero temperatures for the bus or an equally-long and equally-cold 3 mile snowy walk to the Schwangau train station. Krishna had asked a man how far it was to Schwangau from the castle, and then he came back a few minutes later and asked us if we wanted a ride to the station. Quickly confirming that he was a well-dressed middle-aged man who did not seem the serial-killer type and he was traveling with a normal-looking woman in his car, which was not a windowless white van with "Free Candy" painted on the side, we gratefully accepted and were dropped off at the station without incident.

This was the conclusion to our day-trip to see the Hohenswangau and Neuschwanstein castles. It was a fairly long day; we left at 6:45 am to walk to the Nuremberg train station, and then transferred to three more trains. We also had an unscheduled stop because we bought a Bayern Pass, which is 29€ and is valid for the whole day for up to 5 people, but unfortunately you can't use the Bayern Pass until after 9 am and we didn't know that, so we were chucked off the train (though politely) and had to buy a ticket for the interim travel time and sit around for almost an hour until the next train arrived. We finally reached Schwangau at noon, toured both castles, left for the 4 hour journey again after we were transported by our non-axe-murdering-nice German-man to the train station, and made a hot chocolate stop to ward off frostbite. If I was not already highly-caffeinated before I got to Germany due to the unfortunate consequence of so many good coffee shops in Portland, my stay in Nuremberg will contribute greatly. I guess it's as much an excuse for the consumption of multiple cappuccinos and/or hot tea or hot chocolate as traveling in the summer in Europe is an excuse to eat lots of gelato, but I digress.....back to the castles!

I think even though it was so cold, it was worth it to see the castles and evergreen trees blanketed in snow. Hohenswangau castle was built by Ludwig II's father and it was the castle that Ludwig lived in as a child and continued to live in during the construction of his own castle. He even had a telescope in his room so he could check on the construction of Nueschwanstein, which took over 15 years and then the poor guy was only able to live in his new castle for 172 days before he was deposed by his uncle Luitpold on grounds of insanity, and also spending the family fortune on building 3 castles at the same time...hey, we all make mistakes, right? :-P. As evidenced by the decor, Ludwig was a big fan of swans, the composer Richard Wagner, and the color blue. Neuschwanstein is the castle that inspired the Disney castle with its white stone and blue tiled rooftop, and Ludwig took much of his inspiration from his close friendship with Wagner and had several murals of Wagner's operas painted in the castle, as well as a beautiful stage built for performances. Unfortunately Wagner never got to see Neuschwanstein because he died 3 years before the final construction on the castle exterior was completed. In fact, Ludwig also never got to see the completion of the castle and most of the second floor was never decorated and remains bare. The king was a good swimmer, yet both he and his doctor, who had accompanied him on a walk, were found dead in the lake just 1 day after he was deposed. Coincidence.... I think not!