We arranged a tour today to Schloss Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles although it was an early start it was a great day although when we woke up we were a bit worried that it wasn’t going to be too good as it was raining quite hard but we are on holiday so after breakfast we set off for the pickup point with our mac’s and hoped for the best. By the time we got to the coach the rain had eased a bit and by the time we reached Neuschwanstein castle it had stopped completely and the sun had come out. The castle was built by King Ludwig II in 1868 but never completed, he wanted to imitate the medieval castles of other European dynasties and this is reflected in the murals throughout the castle. We had timed tickets but before that we had to walk up to the castle which sits on the edge of a cliff and very much has the look of a fairy tail castle about it, apparently Walt Disney saw this castle when traveling though Europe and used it as the basis for the Sleeping Beauty Castle and you can definitely see this as it is very similar to the castle you see with the fireworks on any Disney film. They say the walk will take about 50 minutes but you can take a horse drawn carriage or bus up to the top, we decided to walk as we had about an hour but we also wanted to go to Marienbrucke which is a small bridge that has a great view of the castle it was quite a steep climb especially as we had limited time to get there but we made it and joined the queue to get on the bridge. Surprisingly for me I found it a little unnerving as the bridge was made of planks of wood that wobbled as you walked on them. All the same we managed to walk out onto the bridge and had a great view of the castle we then had to get back down to the castle before our timed ticket apparently if you miss your time they don’t let you in. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside the castle but I really liked it, apparently only 18 rooms were completed before Ludwig was arrested and taken back to Munich – he was deemed to be incapable of ruling due to insanity and after being arrested and taken to Munich was found dead the following day, they believe that he was actually Gay as he refused to marry each of the princesses that were ‘found’ for him but the circumstances around his death have never been investigated and the family won’t allow an exhumation to establish the cause. After we finished walking round the castle we walked back down the mountain and stopped for a beer before getting back onto the bus and heading to Oberameragau which is a village that is famous for wood carving and painted houses. It is where all the apprentices come to learn the trade, the townspeople vote on wether the apprentices pass or fail. It is also home to the Passion Plays which started when the plague hit Germany and the people of the town said they would perform a play if the plague left the town, this is a play reflecting the last days of Christ and is still performed today, although now they only do this once every 10 years. Our final stop of the day was Schloss Linderhof which was once a hunting lodge but again Ludwig changed it into a place where apparently he spent two weeks out of every month. This is very different to Neuschwanstein as it is actually quite over the top, every room has a collection of gold ornaments and mirrors to make it seem even more impressive than it already is. They say it has 3kg of gold leaf on the walls of the castle. The garden has a fountain that is fed by a reservoir and although it now goes off once every 30 minutes it used to shoot even higher as it only went off once a day. We watched this then walked back dow to the coach where we were welcomed with a bottle of beer then it was time to head back to Munich. We arrived back to at the hotel about 7pm and went out for a few drinks then came back to the room to relax.
