really Disneyland Castle. I named it that way because the Disneyland castle or the Sleeping beauty castle drew inspirations from this Castle. What its called in direct translation? I have no idea. New swan smth..... Does it matter? This is my first trip out of M
unich since my arrival, i have been pretty much just walked around where i stay, so when my classmates asked if i wanted to visit that castle (on my must visit list), i agreed immediately. Plus there is this Bayern ticket, where it cost only 28 eurs for 5 person. The ticket allows you to travel the entire bayern area, however its valid for just a day. As yesterday marks the first day of Spring, there is a daylight
saving time, where they added 1 hour to the time so that the daytime is longer. Heard of the term before, but never really understood that. It is really important though, because if my friend has not informed me, i would meet them at the Train station an hour late, by then they would have been halfway into their journey already. So for those of you who stay in our always summer singapore, you might want to take note :)
Really anticipated for this trip because of the super pretty pictures i saw, so as a shutterbug, its a must visit. For those of you who still have no idea which one i am talking about, remember the castle that stood in the clouds on the motivation poster? In fact i brought along my tripod so that i do not miss any night shots, should they wish to stay into the ev
ening. With my batteries charged and my memory card emptied, i set off to meet my friends in the Hauptbahnhof (main trainstation). Weather was pretty bad in Munich, it was drizzling and the sky was overcast. As the castle was about 2 hours train ride away, i wasn't too worried. As we boarded the train late, i wasn;t able to get 
a window seat, until about 2 stops later, a family alighted and i had the entire 4 seats to myself. As a typical chinese, i whipped out my SLR and started shooting the farmlands that whoozed past the window. If you have been on such trains before, you would know that it is actually pretty quiet, so i b
ecame quite embarassed for everyshot i took as the camera shutter was pretty loud (thought it was cool when i first heard it). My ang mo friends were sleeping away while i went "chik eng chik eng".. haha. As the journey proceeded, i noticed more and more snow on the beautiful landscape. Became more and more excited as the sight flew by the window. I was excited because the snow there was very pretty, thick and clean, unlike in Munich, the only snow i saw was on the cars, the rest on the ground was muddy greyi
sh water. My initial euphoria soon became more of concerned when we arrived at Füssen Bahnhof. It was snowing pretty heavily, so much so that i had to pull out the waterproof cover of my Deuter bag so that my equipment do not get wet. Thats when i realised that taking photos in such weather is a bad bad bad idea. My heart sank. Can;t even spot the Alps from h
ere. =( Hopped onto a bus that took us further into the town where the castles are located. Yeah there are 2 castles here, the very popular Neuschwanstein Schloss and the Hohenschwangau Schloss. The latter is not so popular as it is not as pretty as the former. In anycase, there wasn't any castle in Singapore, so i thought why not?? Paid 15 eu
rs for 2 english guided tours in both castles. Visited the less popular Hohenschwangau Schloss first, which was next to the ticket "shop" on top of a hill. It was still snowing pretty heavily so my camera was still in the camera bag which was in m
y deuter bag which was in the waterproof layer. Ok so here is what i have learnt in the first castle. It was built by King Ludwig II 's father, King Maximallian in the 19 century. After the King Maximilian died, Price Ludwig II took over and the castle eventually became one of his uncle's property, after he died of some unnatural death in a Lake near Munich with his physcologistafter being declared mentally sick by the goverment of Bavaria. There are 4 stories i think, one entire floor belonged to the queen, the level above the queen's was the King's. Over the years, they received many Gifts from the various powerful people all over the world, Russia, the elites from Bavaria, for example. And there are kinky secret passages leading from the Quee
n's room to the King's. Wonder why they dun sleep together in the first place? Yeah i was wondering too. Perhaps the bed of the King was too small! It is slightly bigger than my Single bed back home. Haha
. What an idiot. His reading chair looked more comfortable than his bed. After a short tour of 20 mins, we were out of the castle. They have a time limit for tourists. Its all stated in the tickets. Unwillingly took out my camera, braving the snow and hiding it under my coat after every shots. Took a few pictures of the castle from outside, non from inside as photo taking was not allowed. I think its a scheme to attract tourists who has never seen the inside before. This castle belongs to s
ome duke guy who is now happily living in the Nyphemburg castle in Munich while at the same time sucking the money out of us curious tourists. What a life! Afte the visit, it
was already noon time, so we headed to a restaurant for lunch. Had this thing call Schinkenbrot. On the description was "Open sandwich with smoked/boiled ham" for 5 eurs. Not too ex i thought till the food came. It was a plate of ham and a piece of bread. Surrounding the ham was some vegetables i never saw in my entire 20 years of life. But i must admit the food was pretty good, but far from filling. And as all of us are students, we didn;t bother to give tips.After lunch, we headed for NEUSCHWANSTEIN. There will be a 40 mins trek uphill before we reach the castle. There are 2 other options, first is to take a bus which is not an
option in today's weather, the other is to take a horse carriage up the hill, costing 6 eurs per person. As cheapos, we all voted to walk up unanimously. Bear in mind that the snow just got even heavier. As we trekked up hill, i had to keep my eyes on the ground since it was lined with Horse Scheiße. Not helping was the melted snow with horse Scheiße flowing down my way, you can really identify the Scheiße as it was light brown and rounded in shape in a clump. Anyway, on the way up, i would think i had about 3 bowls of ice kachang thrown in
my face. I assure you on the way up, the castle was never in my mind. Was busying avoiding the round clumps on the ground while brushing away the snow on my face and coat. Had to trek with caution as my addidas sneakers are not made to climb wet and steep slopes in the snow. Visibility was bad, like driving up Genting highlands. When we finally arrived at the Castle, we could only barely see it. Same like the first castle, there is a guided tour, where we had to wait for our number, before we could proceed. I had remembered a little more in this tour. Little background information first, the castle was built by King Ludwig II, as a form of Homage to Richard Wagner. Truthfully, i have no idea who that is, t
hough he sounded remotely familar. King Ludwig II died before the construction was completed. In fact it was only 1/3 finished. The castle was built for retreat purpose. In the guided tour, we were brought up to the second floor where the Throne hall is, up 64 steps according to the tour guide. Interestingly the boy behind me counted with his grandfather who both counted only 63. In the throne hall, was the throne missi
ng. Apparently it was not build yet and when he died, not long later, they opened it to the public as a museum. So it was a throne hall line with 2 million mosiacs tiles with italian marble platform and a 2000 pound chandelier hanging from the middle of the hall, without a throne. O_o Then we proceeded to the Bedroom, this time round it was prettier. According to the tourguide, 14 craftsmen spent 4 years working on the wood in his room alone. i must say their did a damn pretty good job from what i saw above his bed. Its like a world on its own up there above his bed. In his bedroom was a reading chair, which looked like a throne. But his favourite place of reading was in his study room. So much for the 4 years of work huh. All the walls of the castles are line with pictures or protraits some the work of Wagner. Pretty cool stuff there. Then in the middle of his study room stood this really big porcelein box, which really looked like an oversized overly decorated cookie container. It was a gift from another one of those powerful people and it worked as a document safe. Did i mention all the chandeliers are either made of precious stones with pure silver, or goldplated bronze wi
th rare red marble. hahah. Last place of visit was a concert hall, apparently for Wagner's performance, which unfortunately was not used because he died a few days later after the hall was completed. What a shame!! Then came the souvenir shop. Lots of post cards and posters of the pretty castle but for a pretty cost as well! In fact they were selling almost anything that you can put the word Neuschwanstein on. Didn't bother to spend another cent on this sad day. My camera had to stay in my bag for most of the day, which really defeated the purpose of coming here to Neuschwanstein. I must say i was disappointed with this excursion, so was my other friend who also brought along his SLR. But we agreed to come 
again in summer, when the weather is much much better. Only the next time round we are skipping the guided tours. So if you ever ever ever come to Neuschwanstein in the future, choose the right season, and i will seriously discourage you going for the guided tour, unless you find it absolutely necessary to touch the inside walls of the castle, or the 4 years of wood craftmenship. Or if you are interested in the insanely big and pointless gifts (but pretty) that stands on the ridiculously long tables. So be WARNED! haha. You will be better off spending that 15 eurs on post cards at the shops on the way up. Saw a Hummer H2 on our way back. That got me more excited than the castles really....
