After visiting Alpenzoo in Innsbruck, we made our way to a small town near Reutte to check in to our guesthouse for the evening. We got there pretty early, but it was a bit rainy, so we made some last minute changes to our itinerary and headed further north, into Fussen across the Austria/Germany border, to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle.
This fascinating castle is the very one which inspired the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland! Due to this fact, it is a very popular tourist destination, and tours of the castle are quite regulated. You have to basically schedule a time slot by which you will then go on a semi-guided tour that lasts about 45 minutes through each of the fully furnished rooms.
What do I mean by the fully furnished rooms? Neuschwanstein Castle is not a real medieval castle - in fact it was built during the late 19th century by the eccentric Bavarian king, Ludwig II. Basically King Ludwig II was a bit of a dreamer - he lost some short wars early in his reign and sort of lost touch with reality, preferring instead to imagine how wonderful life would be if he were a king in the middle ages.
Well read as he was, he spent much of his life and personal funds exploring and then basically building larger/grander copies of great European palaces (at least he didn't spend Bavarian tax dollars on these efforts!). Neuschwanstein, or New Swanstone, Castle, was the last and grandest of these projects, but he passed away before he had completely furnished the castle. The rooms that he did furnish, however, strongly show of the motifs that inspired him from his studies, such as the Knights of St. George, Roman mythology, and Baroque opera and theater.
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| Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside the castle - but the exterior views are quite impressive! |
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| Nearby to Neuschwanstein Castle is also Hohenschwangau Castle, a real castle where King Ludwig II was raised. We didn't have time to tour it though... |
We returned to Austria for the evening at our guesthouse where we ordered some pretty wonderful pizza from the restaurant of the guesthouse! This part of Austria is very close to Italy, and the proprietors of the guesthouse are all Italian!
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| Our guesthouse and the lovely balcony on our room! |
The next morning, we pointed our bearing back towards Germany for our final destination on our trip. First, however, we would pay a visit to Burgruine Ehrenberg, another real castle ruin that has seen real combat! The key attraction here is actually the "Highline 179", a suspension bridge 114 meters from the ground connecting Ehrenberg castle to another nearby fortress called Fort Claudia. As with our other castle ruin adventure at Durnstein, some of the trips best photo opportunities were taken here!
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| Splendid views of the countryside from Burg Ehrenberg |
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| Getting in some practive |
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| Practicing the splits |
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| Trying to pull the sword from the stone |
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| Terrified of the bridge |
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| Crossing - see the castle on the right there! |
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| That's a looong way down... |
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| View of the castle from the bridge |
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| These are the cables we entrusted our lives with... |
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| Yup, that's pretty high! |
After visiting Burg Ehrenberg, we drove north back towards Germany, but not before stopping for some water play at one of the beautiful lakes on the way!
Next up, our last stop, Munich!
