Yesterday was our day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, and we had such a good time. The castle is located in the very south of Bavaria, close to the Austrian border. The drive was beautiful and a lot more Alpine than I expected. As a bonus, we found a great radio station with traditional German music, just the sort you'd hear on a Rick Steves show about Bavaria.
There was lots of snow on the ground and it was as cold and windy as ever, but the roads were clear and we even got some moments of glorious sunshine during our castle visit.
Our faithful Fiat, pulled over for photos when the castle first came into view.
To visit Neuschwanstein, one must pay for parking in the village below, stand in a long line for only three stalls in the ladies room, stand in another line for admission tickets, join the crowd of other American, Italian and Japanese visitors streaming up the 30-mile steep walk to the castle itself, where you wait for your tour number to appear on a digital signboard. The crowds were actually pretty bearable and the lines not too long, but I shudder to imagine what it's like in July!
Small tourist-oriented village below the castle
Walk to the castle
Neuschwanstein brings out the poser in everyone.
But it's all worth it, especially this time of year. Both of us were won over to the castle's charms despite it being so new (1880s) and only slightly less "fake" than the Cinderella version at Disneyland (it was built to recreate a Romantic vision of the Middle Ages). But it really is lovely and the stuff of fairy tales.
But the best part is its gorgeous location in the foothills of the Alps. It overlooks two blue lakes and a green valley and sheer cliffs rise up behind it. Really incredible, and we can easily understand why King Ludwig wanted to live here. We'd build a medieval-looking castle there too, if we could.
The guided tour was quite short. The interior was very elaborately decorated, but mostly tastefully so. Photos weren't allowed, but I can see why that's important to keep the tour moving. Our tour guide had the worst accent I've ever heard from a German, which sounded like a screechy Australian accent mixed with German. Odd. But it was nice to have the tour in English at all, unlike at the Wartburg. Incidentally, the Wartburg was one of the inspirations for this castle.
The highlight of our visit was after the tour, when we searched out the way to get to this bridge behind the castle.
It turns out the path to the bridge is not technically passable in winter. But why should we let silly barriers like this get in the way of good fun and good photos? so we followed lots of other visitors in climbing around and over various fences to go to the bridge.
The path wasn't actually dangerous. They just hadn't cleared the path of snow and ice, which made for some slippery moments. But the paths were wide and the guard rails were good so the worst that would happen is to fall on your butt. Happily, we didn't. I did briefly pull something in my leg after swinging it over a fence, but recovered quickly. Sucks getting old.
The walk was even further uphill, so we sure got our exercise that day! But it was so beautiful and the view from the bridge was worth it. Like the castle, the bridge was carefully placed by King Ludwig to provide maximum impact of Romantic beauty. He did good!
View from the bridge
The castle on the way back down our illegal path.
When our weary and freezing bones reached the bottom again, we stopped for a late lunch in the first restaurant that looked open. We had a decent meal of goulash soup and salad (for David) and schnitzel with kasespatzle (cheese dumplings) (for me). We made it back to our comfortable hotel room just before dark and barely moved the rest of the night. Sucks being old.
This morning we packed up and departed for Switzerland! It is really fun being in a new country. We've been in Germany for several months and it's time for something new. Mostly we are ready for new weather! But for the next two nights, it's more snow for us, as we have stopped over in Chur, Switzerland.
The drive started out pretty bad, with swirling snow and strong wind blowing the semi-trucks around. But it improved before too long, and the rest of our drive south was lovely, usually surrounded by mountains. We went briefly through Austria (a leg that consisted mostly of a very long tunnel) before arriving in Switzerland and the freeway went along the border of Lichtenstein for awhile before we reached Chur.
Sadly we did not get our passports stamped at the border (Switzerland is not part of the European Union so it seemed a possibility), but we did get stopped to pay a toll for the privilege of using Switzerland's fine roads. The border control officer first spoke to David in French, which really confused me since we were in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Then David reminded me we have French license plates! Ah oui, bien sûr.
Pulled over at the border to pay our toll.
Chur (pronounced "koor") is a nice little Alpine city, but not super exciting. I mainly chose it because it is in a good location halfway to Italy.
Chur has a small cathedral, which has a very interesting interior and is filled with wonderful Romanesque carvings! They are in a dark grey stone that I don't love, but the sculptures are very interesting:
Our hotel room in Chur (partially shown below) is nice; adequately piney and lodgey but not quite the Timberline Lodge sort of place I'd imagined from their website. There are also some noisy renovations going on in the entrance area, but everything is very clean and the receptionist couldn't be nicer.
After an exploration of the town we had dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was stupendous. Again, didn't bring the camera and I'm sorry I didn't. David had the "Chur Councilman's Plate" which included a small steak and veal and small delicious dumplings whose name we can't remember. I had a really unusual dish called Maluns, which consisted of finely chopped potato mixed with some kind of grain, served with homemade applesauce and slices of Alpine cheese. It is apparently a local specialty and it was so very good.
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