Notes Home from Oman: Fairytale Castles and Villages

Every little girl dreams of castles, princesses, prince charming, and fairy tale endings. Between the four of us, we have four little girls--I only contributed one of them!--but we were all anxious to visit the fairytale castles in Bavaria built by "Mad" King Ludwig! (Our tour guide, Bridgette, who you'll see in some of these pictures, would be very unhappy with my use of the word mad to describe Ludwig. She sees him more as a sad character rather than loony!)

The first test you have to pass is being able to say the word Neuschwanstein, phonetically pronounced newsh-vahn-stine, and my personal favorite Hohenschwangau, phonetically pronounced ho-en-shvahng-ow. (Good luck with that!) Difficult names not withstanding, the castles are beautiful. We met our guide Bridgette in the Bavarian town of Fussen, at the base of the Hohenschwangau castle. But before we arrived at Hohenschwangau, we drove through beautiful Bavarian countryside south of Munich towards the mountains.

Bavarian Countryside

The Germans are passionate about the window flower boxes--and they are gorgeous! Their farms are also neat as a pin with everything well-maintained. The scenery is unbelievable!

This church is on Romantic Road--I think in America this would be called a scenic route on the map!

Hohenschwangau Castle

Hohenschwangau Castle--the summer palace where King Ludvig and his brother spent the summers

The village of Fussen is close to both castles. Here are some picturesque street scenes around the base of Hohenschwangau and Fussen itself. I hope you enjoy the tour!

Fussen

Painted houses are a distinctly Bavarian design touch. This one tells a story.

This is the restaurant where we ate lunch on the patio--until the rain began to pour!

The train station in Fussen

Don't you just love this view?

Neuschwanstein Castle

The main purpose of our sightseeing trip was, of course, the Neuschwanstein Castle. Yes, this is the castle that Walt Disney used to pattern his famous princess castle after. The view of the castle from a far walking bridge as well as from the path climbing up to the castle is just beautiful. It was well worth the walk, but we were glad that we took the bus most of the way up! Pictures from inside the castle aren't allowed, and Ludwig died before being able to completely finish this castle. His story is an interesting one if you want to learn more about him. He died tragically, and there is much mystery surrounding his death.

Ludwig was a very private person--there go those rumors again!--and he loved the woods and the solitude around Neuschwanstein. He built a "cave" to serve as a theatre for plays and operas. Yes, that is real water with a real "boat". There are colored lights and even a working waterfall to the side that can be turned off and on! There is an elevated orchestra area and the King's box was built into the scenery around the "lagoon" to give him an up-close, and possibly interactive, view of the productions! There was really no other seating, as he preferred to limit productions to just himself or a few close guests.

He fancied himself an emperor on a level with King Louis XIV of France and built himself a "mini" Versailles type castle on the grounds of Neuschwanstein, complete with gardens, fountains, walkways, and the cave described above. Here are just two of the garden areas.

He also built this Arabic-style building--very authentically furnished, in my opinion. It is rumored that he held parties of a more wild nature in this building--one can only imagine!

Returning to Munich

A special treat awaited us at the end of the day. We had a motorcycle hit our tour guide's car as she was returning us to our own vehicle. Long story short, Bridgette missed her train back to Munich because of the delay. We gladly took her to Munich with us, and she invited us to eat dinner with her at the local biergarten close to her home. Since this was not a touristy area, Bridgette told us we were probably some of the only Americans to visit this restaurant! It's a good thing she was with us as there was no English spoken here! Bridgette ordered us a traditional German appetizer, and helped us select the best meals on the menu. It was a real treat to hang with the locals!