Day 11 - Ludwig's Castles

We actually slept in a little bit in Munich on Day 11.  Then we got up, picked up the rental car and headed south to visit Hohenschwangau Castle, Newschwanstein Castle, and Linderhoff Castle.

 

This little church sits down the road from the castles.  It is so picturesque--it may be the subject of a future painting.  Those are the Tyrolean Alps in the background.  We think we have great mountains in Colorado, but they don't compare to these mountains.

 

We purchased our tickets, at these castles you have to go on guided tours at specific times.  We had just enough time to hike up to Hohenschwangau.

 

Hohenschwangau was the summer and hunting residence of Maximilian and his wife, Marie of Prussia and their sons Ludwig and Otto.  Otto was declared insane so when Maximilian died Ludwig II succeeded to the throne.  Ludwig had a passion for castles so he decided to build Neuschwanstein just up the hill from Hohenschwangau.  I guess one castle wasn't good enough.

 

Years ago we first visited Newschwanstein with the kids and my parents.  My mom had MS and at that time you had to walk up the hill to the castle--about a mile.  I'll never forget my mom struggling up that hill.

 

Now they have a bus that you can pay to take you most of the way up the hill.  Neuschwanstein is a fairly tale castle.  It was under construction for 17 years then Ludwig died.  It was never finished.

 

I made my second trip to Neuschwanstein when Irv was deployed to Desert Storm.  A German army unit took the army families from Schwaebisch Hall under their wing and one weekend they took all of the wives and children to Neuschwanstein.  Jillian was little at the time and she feel asleep in the castle.  A German Major took her from my arms and carried her all the way back down the hill while she was sleeping.  I'll never forget that kindness.

 

So this was my third trip to the castle and I'll never get tired of it.  It's still not finished and never will be although they've added shops to some of the unfinished space--more commercialized.  No pictures were allowed inside.

 

It's the original Disney castle.  I love it!

 

After Neuschwanstein we decided to make a quick dash to Linderhoff.  The one castle that Ludwig II built this is actually finished.  The navigation system in the rental car took us on a very long, round about way to get there, but we arrived right before it closed.

 

We wandered down to the castle from the parking lot (about 1/2 mile) in time to make the last tour of the day at 5:30.  Bad news--the ticket booth was back by the parking lot.  My sweet hubbie hoofed it back to the ticket booth in pouring rain to buy tickets.

 

He made it back with seconds to spare.  Good news--we were the only ones on the tour.  We got a private tour of Linderhoff!  We think the young woman who took us on the tour was getting ready to depart when we showed up at the last minute.  We felt kind of bad about that, but she was graceful.

 

Once again, no pictures allowed inside, but take my word for it when I tell you it is opulent.  Gold everywhere!  Mirrors everywhere!  Wood carvings and paintings everywhere!

 

The gardens and the fountains are amazing.

 

It's no wonder that Ludwig II was bankrupt at the time of his death.  Many people thought he was crazy like his brother, but perhaps he was ahead of his time.  He had great vision and was probably what we would call eccentric these days.  A psychiatrist declared him insane and Ludwig II was dethroned.  Three days later both he and the psychiatrist were found drowned in very shallow water.  Neither of them had water in their lungs.  It's assumed that Ludwig's family had him killed so he'd stop spending the family's money on grandiose castles and embarrassing them.

 

Who knows?  I think he was probably murdered.  I love the castles he left behind.