Hiking to Neuschwanstein Castle
After visiting the town of Fussen and the Lechfalls on our first day in Germany we continued our adventure by hiking up to the Neuschwanstein Castle.
It's only about an hour and a half away from the town of Fussen and takes you through a really beautiful forest with a mountain lake and a few lookouts over the valley plains.
We got really lucky with the weather that day as well. It was sunny and warm, which was rather unusual for our vacations in 2021. This year it rained or was overcast for the better part of the summer season and this time was no different. I think out of the seven days we spent in Germany, we maybe got three days of decent weather. I took a few pictures of my wife and dog to commemorate the occasion.
After about 45 minutes of walking through the forest we eventually came to the town of Hohenschwangau and its castle on the hill.
It's a lovely yellowish peach colored building that contrasts brightly against the green backdrop of the forest.
We couldn't go into the courtyard because we didn't have the proper covid masks. In Bavaria at that time they required you to wear the FFP2 masks in every hotel, restaurant and venue and we only had our reusable cloth ones.
No breaking the rules under the watchful eyes of the king either.
Down the hill from the castle is the small but charming tourist village of Hohenschwangau.
It's set within a beautiful location in the mountains next to a blue water lake, very picturesque to say the least.
The town is very small and is only made up of a few hotels, restaurants, shops and a museum. Buts it's got some pretty cool view of its castle above.
I noticed that a lot of building roofs in Bavaria had large rocks on them. I don't know the purpose of them and I'm super curious, so if anyone knows why they're there please let me know in the comments.
It was still quite early in the morning at this point but it was already getting busy. Neuschwanstein is one of the most popular castles in the country and maybe even in Europe. Tourists were begining to arrive by the bus load.
They say that over 1.4 million people visit the castle each year and up to 6000 per day in the summer so let's get going! I can see the castle up ahead.
The Castle
From Hohenschwangau it's still about 20 minutes away from Neuschwanstein and the walk is entirely up hill.
Along the way we passed some old timey horse drawn carriages transporting people up the road and also got a few glimpses of the residence poking out through the trees. I could see why they call it a fairytale castle.
Neuschwanstein was built on the side of a mountain in the forest and when the trees part you can see the valley below and start to get an idea of just how high up and secluded it really is. Apparently, King Ludwig II was a shy king, or maybe he just didn't like people because he built the castle as a private residence in order to isolate himself from the rest of society. The castle housed no court and was built only for the king himself.
Not a bad place to retreat to, I must say.
Construction of the castle began in 1869 but was never completed and after Ludwigs death in 1886, the castle was opened up to the public. The king lived there for only 172 days and renovations and restoration continue on the building even to this day.
The architectural design of the structure is Romanesque Revival and a great spot to view it is from the steel grate platform located on an adjacent hill just below the front entrance.
We were traveling with our dog so we didn't go inside - pets aren't allowed in the interior. We still enjoyed walking around the outside though.
We probably wouldn't have gone in anyway though. Like many castles that we have seen in Germany, Neuschwanstein has a mandatory guided tour policy, meaning that you cannot wander the interior on your own.
Walking slowly and standing in a group of 20-30 people really isn't at all appealing to me personally.
More amazing views of the exterior can be seen if you walk around back and up the road a little ways, as well as a view of the town of Hohenschwangau where we had just come from.
As you can see, we covered quite a bit of ground during our hike.
The town of Fussen isn't even visible in the shot below. It's located somewhere beyond that lake in the distance on the right side of the photograph.
One not so minor inconvenience about our visit that day was that the main viewing bridge was closed due to covid. It's the only spot that you can get a really clear and close view of the castle in its entirety. You can see just how close the bridge is in the next photo.
We actually found another spot by hiking way up the mountain, but I really had to zoom in to get a good image.
The second photo is roughly how close it looks without zooming in with a camera. The spot is pretty cool but as you can see we were quite far away and the hike to get there was long and arduous.
The last thing we did before heading back to Fussen was hike to the creek thats located behind Neuschwanstein.
There's an interesting art piece back there as well as a nice little man made waterfall that you can get up close and personal to.
I'm not sure what the folks crossing through the water were doing.
They chose one of the deepest locations to walk through the water. You could cross easily in dozens of other places without even getting your feet wet.
Maybe they were hot and were trying to cool off?