Castle Neuschwanstein & Composer Richard Wagner
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2009
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Trip End
Sep 25, 2009
Füssen, Bavaria, Germany
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
http://www.koenigswinkel.com/koenigswinkel/castles/burg-neu.htm
The most famous of these castles are
+ Castle Neuschwanstein
+ Castle Linderhof
which we both visited.
Füssen is a complete tourist trap. Apart from it being located in a very picturesque setting, and also being a picturesque town, it really is dominated by the tourism industry. The old town has several very nicely painted buildings, and high above the center of the town, the Burgschloss - castle fortress called "Hohes Schloss" looms beautifully above the city.
Every evening, Wagner concerts take place in this Burgschloss.
Castle Neuschwanstein is located about 3 km east of Füssen. Probably buses go their on a regular schedule, but as we had the luxury of a car, we followed the brown roads leading to the "Königsschlösser". The well-organised but rather expensive parking at the foot of the castle hill (cost EUR 4.50 per car) was yet another tourist trap.
I have never seen as many large and aggressive large hornets and wasps as I have seen at this location. It was all but pleasant. The ticket office to go to the castle was also located here. Each castle entry costs EUR 9 per person, and one had to reserve a guided tour at a specific time. A bus, costing EUR 4 for going up the hill, or EUR 2 back down, took about 10 minutes to get to the top. Alternatives were horse carriages, or walking (approx. 20 mins). From the bus drop off point it was another 10 mins walk to the castle.
I considered the castle most impressive from the outside, but hardly glamorous from the inside. It was really not worth the visit, if one knows other nice castles of Germany, like Schloss Linderhof. The exterior of the castle looked very similar to Disney's Fairy Tale Castle. In the interior only about 18 of the 60 rooms had been completed. At the early age of 40 years, King Ludwig II was murdered after having enjoyed a mere 80 days at that castle.
The whole castle's interiors depicted the compositions of Richard Wagner. King Ludwig was a big fan of Wagner, but arrogant Wagner never bothered to visit Ludwig's palace. One of Wagner's compositions also included a cave story, and so Ludwig II had one of the interior rooms styled like a cave interior with stalagmites and stalagtites.
Nearby castle Hohen Schwangau was very impressive looking from the outside but according to many tourists not really worth a visit from inside, so we decided to skip that castle.
