Our journey beginsTake Off, AustraliaTransit in SingaporeThe place where the books are black.London on footOxford, United KingdomNever again, so long as I may live.Markets and musicals... cliche much?Last days in LondonIch bin ein Jam-DonutI like your Altstadt better than your NeustadtBrezl bigger than your head!Ze castle of ze crazy KingMalvenue à Paris!Tuesday? What Tuesday?!The Louvre in 30 secondsThat Spears bird has given Brittany a bad name...Let the wine flow freely!A very Gaudí dayMontserrat, SpainValencia, SpainMadrid, SpainThe moment of truth!Restaurant Gordon RamsayThere... and back again.
 | kitandbeau |  | Kit and Beau's European... |  | Ze castle of ze crazy King |
Rating:
Jun 30 2008, 11:49 AM
24 photos
1 comment
Embed trip
View in Google Earth
Rss news about this trip
GPX Track
Journal
Location
Hohenschwangau, Germany
The surrounding area seems to survive solely on their holiday trade, cashing in on the overseas tourists coming just to see the castle, and Germans who also choose to take in the scenery and relaxing surroundings. Just about every house in Brunnen, the village we're staying in, has been turned into a B&B, and just around the corner from us is a huge camping ground on the edge of a gorgeous lake. Fingers crossed the weather holds out, so we can go for a swim tonight!
One would think with all of this tourist trade, that there would be some form of public transport, but alas, no. Brunnen is lucky to get one bus service in either direction every 2 hours or so, so after we made our way to our hotel to drop off our bags, we had no choice but to walk the several kilometres to Schwangau to catch the bus to take us to the castle. Then again, after the last few weeks, the walk is becoming pretty normal, and in actual fact gave us a great chance to take in some of the scenery without the flocks of tourists we would find at Neuschwanstein. As I'm typing this (at around 6pm), the last bus to Brunnen has already left for the night, so we might have to repeat the process!.
The castle, and surrounding forests were worth any walk we may have had to take. Photos can't begin to describe the amazing views of, from and around the castle. Kit had already been during the middle of winter, and said that it was a completely different experience this time, especially seeing as some of the paths we walked to get some of our photos are closed during winter due to the Lebensgefahr (danger of death) that the snow and ice create.
The castle itself really is the creation of a crazy man. Construction took over 17 years, but stopped completely when King Ludwig II died under mysterious circumstances. As a result, while the outside is mostly complete, only a third of the rooms inside the castle are finished as the König had planned, but you can definitely see where those 17 years went. Who needs to buy paintings to hang on your wall, when you can have every single internal surface painted with literally hundreds of wall-sized panels depicting scenes from Wagnerian operas, and great love stories: King Arthur and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde etc. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos within the castle, because nothing I write can really explain how ridiculously opulent, kitschy and brilliant the castle truly is. I mean really, the man had a personal chapel built in his bedroom, had a chandelier in the Throne room weighing 900kg made to represent a Byzantian crown, and turned an entire room of the castle into a cave grotto, complete with stalactites and rock formations! One of his lesser castles in Chiemsee has a perfect recreation of the Hall of Mirrors, from the Palace of Versailles...only bigger! Judging from some of the original plans we saw of the castle, he actually wanted to do more to it still!
We rested our aching legs on the way back by taking a relaxing horse-carriage trip to the bottom of the mountain. The fact that we were the youngest people on the carriage by about 60 years did reinforce our idea that we're just a pair of Grandmas though!
So that's pretty much it from the bustling metropolis that is Hohenschwangau. Time for us to enjoy our last night in Germany. All things going to plan, we have a swim and a sauna awaiting us, not to mention some dinner consisting of meat stuffed with meat, washed down with a beer as big as your head! Of course we'll be in Paris tomorrow where we can be far more sophisticated, but until then... Prosit!
K&B
Comments |
Log in to add comment |
Beautiful
Written by cazzaline 60 months ago
Sorry to be a broken record, but I'm so jealous. You guys look like you're having such a great time. Keep it up!