Saturday morning we woke to a bit of a cloudy day, but nothing could dampen our spirits as today we were finally going to see Neuschwanstein castle. Despite our other various trips to Munich we've never taken the trek out to see the castle, I thought it was more difficult to get to or that you had to take a tour, turns out you don't!
We had to get up early as the trains only leave every hour and we wanted to arrive at the castle early to avoid the crowds, once again. Our train left at 7:53, but we had to walk to the station and buy our train ticket, so left the hotel at 7:20 am. Lucky we did leave early as when we arrived at the station there were loads of other people waiting to board the train, thankfully the train had not turned up yet, otherwise I don't think we would have got a seat!
The train trip to Fussen takes two hours, it's the town closet to the castle that is connected by train. It was a lovely journey through the countryside of Germany, you could see the beautiful mountains and heaps of cute little German houses, a very pleasant train trip indeed. Once we arrived in Fussen we joined he crowds waiting to get a bus to the small town of Hohenswangau, this is basically where the castle is, although the journey does not end there!
The bus trip took about 10 minutes, which was good, given that we were packed in like sardines! Once we got off the bus everyone then charged over to buy tickets to enter the castle. Pete and I had already decided some time ago that we were not going to go inside the castle. You are not allowed to take photos inside and for us, it's more about taking photos of the castle itself than seeing the inside. Whilst I'm sure it is amazing, with the amount of people going inside the castle, I'm sure it would have sent us over the edge, neither of us love crowds!
So once we got off the bus, we bypassed the ticket queue, which was almost 500 metres long, and we took the walk up to the castle. Now for anyone planning on visiting the castle in the future, there is also a bus, but as you know Pete and I don't do things the easy way and we like to walk, so we trekked up the main road and then took a little detour into the forest in search of a bridge where you can view the castle. I think we were the only people who took this path and whilst the climbing was tough, it was fun and we soon made our way to the bridge.
Well, it was worth the climb as the view is quite simply spectacular! All these years of wanting to see the castle, finally, there it was in all its glory! Just lovely! We took loads of photos on the bridge and then headed to the castle itself to get a close up view. It is certainly impressive! After taking more photos of the castle and the views from the castle we headed back down to catch he bus back into Fussen. Typically we got there with half an hour to spare, so we decided rather than wait, we would walk the 4km back into town, the weather whilst cloudy was very pleasant.
The walk was along a bike path, and we enjoyed smiling at others as they walked or rode along the path towards the castle. Half way into town we stopped at a small village to take a look around, it was so cute and such a lovely spot. Can you imagine living in such a place with a view over such a beautiful castle? There was one place with a trampoline in the back yard, I could not imagine growing up bouncing on a trampoline with such a sight! Just amazing!
It took us about 45 minutes all up to walk back into Fussen, we wandered around the town which is simply picture perfect! We grabbed some lunch from a bakery and ate that before heading back to the train. We could of stayed in Fussen longer, it is a gorgeous little place, but th weather was starting to turn and we figured it was best to get back to Munich before the storm hit.
Lucky for us that we left when we did as about 2 minutes before our train arrived the rain hit! It rained nearly the whole way back to Munich, but as we got closer to Munich the sun stated to shine, we had missed the storm! Could not be luckier!
It was after 4 by this time, so we got ourselves ready for dinner and drinks, both feeling pretty tired! We had planned on going to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner, but knowing it was a Saturday night we were not too sure this was the best idea! Well, once we walked inside, we both knew for us, in our tired state, that maybe it was not the wisest choice. It was completely packed and pumping with oompah bands, people signing and dancing, beer steins swinging! On another occasion maybe, but not tonight!
So we headed to a more subdued beer hall across the road, still very busy with beer flowing and German food, but a little more relaxed and enjoyable. We had a couple of beers before deciding to eat, for dinner we had baked leberkasse, with an egg and potato salad, we also had a side of red cabbage, my favourite! It was so good, basic food, but just delicious! It went down so well with the German beer!
After dinner we found an ice cream stand near the beer hall, this time, it was actually open after 9pm, and then we took a walk back to the hotel. It was another pleasant evening and the walk was so nice.
It was a big day for us, but we had an amazing time, seeing Neuschwanstein castle was certainly a highlight of our trip!
Tomorrow is the last full day of our trip as Monday we fly home. We don't have plans for Sunday and will take it as it comes, but I'm sure there will be some more beer and German food to be consumed.
Enjoy your Sunday folks! xx
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