Neuschwanstein Castle

Ever since my friend told me about a beautiful castle in Germany that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle from Disney I've been wanting to go and see it. Roy and I had been umming and aahhing about where to go for our long weekend at Easter (a bit of a luxury umming and aahhing over where to go in Europe) so a few days before the weekend arrived I decided that I wanted to go and finally see it. We also hadn't been over that side of the country, nor had we been to Austria (we can now say that we have been to all of the countries that surround Switzerland).

After spending a night in Liechtenstein we drove a few hours to Hohenschwangau, Germany passing through Switzerland and Austria along the way (we went through four countries in a matter of 2-3 hours). The route took us through beautiful landscapes of snow-capped mountains, rolling green hills and lush, green forests.

We eagerly peered out of the car windows waiting to spot the castle perched atop a mountain. While I thought at the time that the weather wasn't all that nice, I think that it added a certain charm and mystery to the surrounds. It was cold but we were prepared and it was drizzling with rain but the forest on the mountains was shrouded in mist and clouds. Very beautiful!

The Neuschwanstein castle in part was covered with scaffolding for refurbishments that have been going on for many years but it was still very beautiful to see. Something that I didn't know before we went was that there is also another castle in the village of Hohenschwangau which was also very grand and beautiful.

Hohenschwangau Castle 

Neuschwanstein Castle 

We lined up to buy tickets to go inside of Neuschwanstein and soon realised that in order to go inside we had to be guided and since it was a rather busy weekend the tours were booked up for many hours ahead. In hindsight we should have done a bit of research and perhaps pre-booked our tickets. I wasn't too disappointed that we couldn't go in. I was quite happy admiring it from the outside. The castle is a fair way away from where you need to park your car so there are walking paths, buses and even horse and cart to add to the fairytale feeling. Roy and I opted to walk up since it wasn't that far and got a ride down on the horse and cart because my silly knee was playing up.

Sufficiently Disney-like.

In the courtyard of the castle. We didn't need a ticket to get in here.

After we checked out the castle we stopped in at a cafe nearby which sold these really tasty donuty things. They were called some name in German, which I neglected to memorise but they also had an english name for us plebs which was 'Bavarian Snowballs'. They were deep fried and covered in powdered sugar. I expected them to be oily and fairly dense like Dutch Oliebollen but when you bite into them they fall apart in your mouth and are so incredibly light and delicious. Naturally we went back for more.

Our lovely ride - Susie and Yuli (spelling?)

Very close to the castles and tourist town of Hohenschwangau is a beautiful lake called Alpsee where Roy and I ate our picnic lunch. I can imagine that it would be a really nice spot for a sunny day picnic.

Despite the weather and opting to not go inside we had a really nice time admiring this fairytale-like castle and it's surrounds.