Today started with a bang … not Chitty chitty bang bang (where we were heading), but trying to buy a quick ticket to the main train station from the suburb in Munich where our hotel was. Yes, once again we had s problem or three deciphering the language on the ticket buying kiosk. Why let people buy 3 tickets – but not two? By the time we worked it out, our train had gone and it was 20 mins till the next. Ah, time for a coffee after all. We had left ourselves time, thankfully. For we were meeting with the tour group that was heading to visit the castle.
The tour stated that we had a 2 hour train journey … not. We were put on a bus instead. We went through lush countryside with a lot of farms. I did wonder about the hills and mountains where the castle was meant to be … but then the countryside began to change as we climbed gradually. Then it was pointed out to us.
“Take a look over there”, the Bavarian guide said. And there it stood, perched on the side of the hill … among a lot of trees, on the edge of a cliff. I can just imagine how it might have looked with snow all around, or if the sun was shining. Still impressive though the day was cold and grey.
We arrived at the village in time for a snack and look around. Visits to the castle are strictly timed. Turns out our group wasn’t scheduled to go through till 2.10 precisely.
However by the time we had walked up the winding road, passed beautiful waterfalls, a gorge and up further … then down a bit to the marienbrucke bridge for photos – and panoramic views of the valley below, a good hour or more had gone by.
All good, as our guide kept us entertained with history of the castle, and the famed ‘mad king Ludwig II’ who had it built, back in 1869. It took 17 years and 200 people working on it. There were two or three photo stops.
The inside – once we did get in, was amazing. Murals, gilded chandeliers, stunning furniture, words can’t describe- and sadly they don’t allow photos to be taken inside. The music hall he had built was acoustically perfect, but he didn’t live long enough to hear the works if Richard Wagner ;his favourite composer. Even the murals depicted many of his operas.
They are very strict, with a specific inside castle tour guide … each group tuned to the minute. They did allow time at the end to wander through the kitchens, along long corridors to the outside again.
Then it was once again the long walk back down the hill, which I quite enjoyed.
We had quite a wait in the cold for our bus driver n bus to turn up … my legs n feet were turning to stone by now. Finally an hour or so later we headed back to Munich on the bus. The warmth and the guides voice chatting to some of the group made it easy to drop off …Image may be NSFW.
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