Germany is a land known for castles. But I have not really been to any of them. As you can see I am not really into this castle and palace stuff. However many people have told me Neuschwanstein was different. So I decided what the heck, lets visit it!    [](http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=neu025km3.jpg)  The touring party this time comprised of only the people I knew well – Renu and Ginu both relatively new comers and Ann the veteran who had come all the way from Hildesheim to meet us. We decided to take the first connection from Stuttgart and that meant we had to cut our Sunday sleep again. Anyway Neuschwanstein was not too far away, changing 4 trains to reach Fuessen and taking a bus from there we reached the village of Hohenschwangau. From there it was either a walk, by bus or by horse carriage. We took the most modern transport of them all and not surprisingly the fastest and more importantly the less tiring ;)

The first view of the castle itself told me that this was different. They don’t really allow self explorations inside the castle so we had to take the guided tour for 7 euros. To be honest it was totally not worth it. You get to see some 4 or 5 rooms inside. Ok, they are exquisite and looks good, but you don’t get to spend too much time there to really appreciate it all. We came out and the skies which were a bit cloudy and foggy started clearing. We walked towards the Marienbrucke which was just 5 minutes away. The view of the castle from there was breathtaking and the Gods were kind to us to give us some very clear weather. This is something you should not miss. I kind of got the picture why this was nominated as a candidate for the new seven wonders of the world (it didn’t make it btw).

The king who built this (Ludwig II) was described as a mad eccentric king. Hmm.. I don’t know about that, but sure this guy had a great artistic mind and a vision. This was definitely   the  place to build a castle. Most of the beauty of the castle lies in its location. Really a fairy tale castle. Classic! It is a pity that he was killed before the castle was completed (which never happened). He had the power to turn his dreams into reality but never lived to see it done. Hope I had that much vision (yeah and off course the money) to build something like that… Yeah I know, dream on Anoop, all you are going to build is some computer program ;)

Picasa Album – 24 pics

Getting there:
 From Stuttgart/Munich take the train to Fuessen. It takes around 4 hours from Stuttgart. From Fuessen take Bus #78 to Hohenschwangau. Buy the tickets from there for the guided tour which I don’t recommend. You can walk upto the castle in probably 30-40 minutes. A mini bus (2 euros) takes you up in 10 minutes and there is an interesting horse carriage ride too which we took while coming downhill. It was not too bad.