Hohenschwangau, Germany (May 7-9, 2012)

Most people will not recognize the name Hohenschwangau, but almost everyone will recognize the Neuschwanstein Castle that is located in Bavaria near the Germany and Austrian border.  There are actually two castles in this small hamlet.

After traveling about 11 hours from Venice we arrived to this sight after 9 pm.  This is the less famous Hohenschwangau Castle.  We would like to show a picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle at night, but as will be shown later, they are restoring two sides of it, the sides you can see from below, so it is covered with scaffolding and wrap and didn't produce a decent night picture.

A daytime view from another angle.  Centuries ago a castle once stood on this sight, but it had been destroyed and only the ruins remained.  In the early 1800's the King of Bavaria tore down the ruins and built this castle as a summer home.  King Ludvig, his son, spent much of his growing up years in this castle.

A view looking towards Austria and the Alps.  Royalty spend their summers hunting and fishing and enjoying the cooler temperatures here compared to Munich which was the capital of Bavaria.

Fountains in the royal courtyard.

Tours were only conducted in this one part of the castle, where the royal family lived.  The Queen had a bedroom on the 1st floor, and the King on the 3rd floor - there was a secret passageway between the two bedrooms.  There was one guest bedroom in this wing.  The castle is nicely finished, but not overly ornate as it was designed to be a summer cabin (castle)!

A view from below.  The royal residence is on the left and the servants, guests, kitchen, etc. is in the building on the right.  From this angle the building on the right looks much smaller than what it actually is.

We walked down the hill and by the lake.  The scenery here is stunning!

Time for the main attraction - the Neuschwanstein Castle!

I remember growing up that my father had a picture of this castle in his office and I've always wanted to see it - I just didn't expect it to be with scaffolding and wrap around it.  The restoration will be completed in 2013.

Here's the view from the backside, taken from Mary's Bridge.  This side, plus the main entrance, were refurbished a few years ago.

A view from the castle to the north.  You can see several villages, and a lake where the water level is low.

To the southwest you get a view of the Hohenschwangau Castle.  King Ludvig, who built the Neuschwanstein Castle, lived at Hohenschwangau while the construction was taking place.  He had a telescope in his bedroom so that he could observe the construction.

An up close view from the walkway leading to the main entrance.  This castle is huge.

We would have liked to show pictures from the inside of both castles, but photos were not allowed.  We were able to take a picture of part of the kitchen.  Considering that this was built in the 1860's it appeared to be a fairly modern kitchen.

At the left is the main entrance to the castle.  This was taken from the road below.  The more famous pictures are taken from a mountain side to the north and require hiking up a steep incline through a forest.  Construction on the castle lasted about 20 years.  King Ludvig lived in the partially finished castle for only 172 days until his unexpected death.  It remains unfinished as it was when he died.  Rumor has it that he committed suicide after bankrupting his kingdom in building this castle and two others.  Unlike the Hohenschwangau Castle, the interior of this one is extremely ornate.  It was based on King Ludvig's fantasies, many inspired by the operas of Wagner.  Walt Disney designed his castle at the entrance of Disneyland after this castle.

These four pictures are from buildings in village of Hohenschwangau.  They are currently used as hotels, restaurants, gifts shops, etc.  After a week of being on the go from morning to night we were able to relax and enjoy a laid back day and a couple of meals of German food.

The last train ride. 

The next morning we caught a train (actually three different trains) that took us north to Mannheim and then west to Kaiserslautern, near Ramstein Air Base.  The German countryside is shown in these pictures.  There's a glare as they are taken through the windows of the train.  The area is extremely green as shown here.

We saw a lot of churches in the villages with this style of steeple.

A commuter bike rack.  At the train stops these were a common feature - commuters would leave their bikes for the day as they took the trains into larger cities to work.  At times there would be several of these and they were all full.

We started the day on a commuter train that stopped at most villages, but then we switched to an express train that we to took to Mannheim.  It went on to Frankfurt and Berlin.  This train only made a few stops and traveled at speeds up to 250 KPH (150 MPH).

The yellow fields are a crop that is grown to produce canola oil.  It blooms bright yellow for about a week.  There were fields dotting the countryside like this in both Germany and France.

We ended the day meeting my cousin, Mike Palmer, and his wife Corri.  They've been stationed at Ramstein Air Base for almost three years.  We'll spend the last week of our trip traveling with them to France and back to Germany.