The Great European Road Trip: Days 8 and 9

And so we said good-bye to Salzburg without much looking back and started on the journey home.  One last stop before we head back to Geneva and that was Füssen in Bavaria, home of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle built by King Ludwig II.  Fussen is about 4 hours away from Salzberg and the German highways make it easy.  Did you know the mini-van can get up to 160 KPH without any problems?  And we were still getting passed!

Main shopping street in Füssen

We arrived in Füssen in the afternoon and checked into our guesthouse.   We're out in the country--about 5 km outside the town.  And we're in between the clock tower and a horse farm.  So we have both auditory and olfactory benefits.  

Füssen from across the river

There's not a whole lot in the town of Füssen itself.  Somewhat like Salzburg, if it weren't for the two castles of "Mad King Ludwig," Füssen might not be on the map.  There are the remnants of a medieval city here, including parts of the wall, an old cathedral and a castle/fortress.  But you can walk the town, which CW and SoulSwisster did, in about an hour and a half including time for browsing in some of the many stores.  Of interest on the main shopping street is a Woolworth's complete with picture of F.W. Woolworth (and a lot of text in German we couldn't read).

Hohenschwangau, Ludwig's childhood home

CW in the courtyard of the castle in Füssen

You can barely see it by late in the day

But of course, the main draw is Neischwanstein, only a few km outside of town.  Almost 23 years, CW promised SoulSwisster that he would take her to the real fairy tale castle she loved so much from their visits to Disney.  Checking the fine print, however, it seems he never actually promised that she would see the castle.  It's been foggy and rainy with a few snowflakes for the last couple of days, a definite bummer considering our expectations for a beautiful view of the castle.  Nevertheless, we persevered!



















There are three attractions in the areas--Neuschwanstein (Ludwig's castle), Hohenschwangau (the castle close by where he grew up) and a museum dedicated to the Bavarian kings.  None of knew that there had been so many kings of the Bavarian region--they date back to the Middle Ages.  In later years, they were instrumental in turning Munich into a cultural and artistic center of Europe.

It was supposed to look like this!

The foggy entrance to Neuschwanstein

Ludwig, as it turns out, was a bit of an odd duck.  He assumed the throne when he was 18 near the end of the U.S. Civl War upon the death of his father and is portrayed as being unprepared for the responsibilities.  During the late 1860's and early 1870's, regions of Germany, Austria, and Prussia were in conflict.  One issue was whether or not to establish a German Empire.  Ludwig eventually supported this idea and suggested that his uncle, Wilhelm, become the first emperor or kaiser.  This effectively ended the independence of the Kingdom of Bavaria, something from which Ludwig never recovered.  Instead, he withdrew into a fantasy world.  Ludwig loved the idea of chivalrous medieval knight and was enthralled by epic operas of Richard Wagner, particularly Lohengrin and Der Ring des Nibelungen (from which we get The Valkyrie).   Murals of scenes from these and other operas adorned almost every wall of Neuscwanstein.

Although Ludwig's building projects were funded by independently, he was heavily in debt as a result of his building.  His family, from whom he'd borrowed and who viewed his building as an unhealthy obsession, eventually had him declared insane and deposed him from the throne.  While it's unclear whether there were any true issues with Ludwig, his younger brother Otto had already been declared mentally incompetent and sources all agree that that was an accurate assessment.

One of keys to Ludwig's popularity today is his mysterious death.  On June 13, 1886, only three days after he'd been declared unfit to rule, the bodies of Ludwig and his physician were found floating in Lake Stamberg near Munich.  No marks were found on Ludwig, but the doctor's body indicated a struggle.  Ludwig's death was ruled suicide by drowning, but no water was found in his lungs. To this day, no one knows if he was murdered, died accidentally, or did, in fact, kill himself.  His death was truly unfortunate--Ludwig had imagined tow other castles for which plans had been partially completed.  His family never built them.  Nor did they actually finish Neuschwanstein which had several other features planned.  Ludwig lived only ~170 days in his fairy tale castle before his life came to its tragic end.

Onward through the fog

 

The castles are amazing, though they move you through very quickly.  The artwork is fantastic and some of the technological inventions were quite advanced for his time.  Unfortunately, no photos are allowed either.  So we have relatively few pictures of a very interesting day.

"Before" at the ice cream parlor

"After"

We did, however, stop at a local store on our way out and we are now the proud owners of a cuckoo clock.  CW is happy to report, however, that it does have an automatic shut off for darkness!  We may put it in the guest room and turn that feature off! :)

Our cuckoo clock!

We also found a wonderful ice cream parlor back in Füssen.  It had the best menu we've ever seen and the ice cream was fantastic.