After leaving Hohenzollern late in the afternoon, we decided to change our schedule, cancel our leg to Salzburg, Austria, and add a day in Eisenburg. We are so glad we did! By the time we reached Eisenburg, it was 7 PM. There is no way we could we could have gone to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We knew from the experience at Hohenzollern that the two castles would take at least several hours the next day, and we would have at least a 3-hour to drive to Salzburg afterwards. The next day we would have a similar drive from Salzburg to Munich. As it turned out, it took us all day to go to the castles and we were exhausted afterwards. I can’t imagine taking that 3-hour drive! Even if we had, we would not have had time to see much in Salzburg before we needed to head out for Munich.
Eisenberg is a tiny village in Southeast Bavaria. It looks quite new, and it has a golf course, so I suspect that it’s pretty much a recreation-oriented development. It is near Innsbruck, so there would be skiing in the winter. Two towns closer to the castles were obviously heavily tourist-oriented. This was also farming area with a number of older villages nearby. The surrounding landscape was probably hay fields, but when we got there, it looked like acres and acres of mown lawn. Our flat was modern and very comfortable—the top floor of the host’s home. It was roomy enough to sleep about 6 people. It had a great view of the Alps from our back deck. Our hostess was very nice and even did some laundry for us!
On Saturday, we went to see the castles. It really is a kind of Disney experience, starting with the line for tickets. The line snaked around until you went through a door, where you expected the ticket office to be. Instead, there was another line snaking around to another door. This led to the room where the ticket windows were, but before getting to the ticket counter, you have another line to snake through!
There are two castles in close proximity. Hohenschwangau is the earlier castle built by Maximillian II and the childhood home of “Mad” King Ludwig II.
Ludwig also lived there as an adult while he had Neuschwanstein built.
Neuschwanstein is the famous castle used by Disney as the model for Sleeping Beauty.
You can only see the insides on guided tours, which are tightly scheduled with time-stamped tickets. Miss your time and you are out of luck! Our tour of Hohenschwangau came first. We had plenty of time to eat and walk around. It was a very touristy area with many small shops selling cheap souvenirs and also some more expensive shops for the shoppers.
Eventually, we walked up a steep hill and stairs to the castle. It wasn’t far, so I felt like I could make it if I took my time. We had time to take some photos outside before the tour.
The tour was very interesting. As Jess commented, it was actually more interesting than the more lavish Neuschwanstein, because people actually lived there as they did at Hohenzollern. As I mentioned earlier, Hohenzollern is still occupied part-time by the Prussion royal family. I didn’t realize until later that Hohenschwangau is still owned by the Bavarian royal family and is still occasionally used by them. Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of King Maximilian.
Of course we couldn’t take pictures inside, so I bought a booklet with pictures of both castles that I scanned. Notice the vibrance of the colors, particularly of the paintings painted on the the walls. These are the original colors from the 1800’s and have not faded. Our tour guide explained that a coating applied at the time the paintings were done has protected them all this time.
5 photos scanned from booklet purchased at the castles.
For more interior photos of Hohenschwangau click here:
Here is another view of Hohenschwangau taken from from Neuschwanstein.
We took a shuttle to Neuschwanstein because it is quite a bit farther. Even with that, it’s about ½ mile down a steep hill to a place below the castle, and then a short steep walk uphill to the castle entrance. There were hundreds of people there, but with the timed tours, the whole thing work pretty well. Inside the castle, the tour included many stairs that would make it very difficult for anyone with mobility challenges. The tour was interesting and it is amazing how the royalty could be so lavishly self-indulgent. Neuschwanstein was built by “Mad” King Ludwig II. Although he stayed there at times during its construction, he never really lived there. In fact, he died before it was finished. Again, we couldn’t take photos inside, but here are some photos from the booklet I bought.
4 photos scanned from booklet purchased at the castles.
For more interior photos of Neuschwanstein click here:
For some reason, they did let us take photos of the castle kitchen. Probably because it is restored rather than original.
We walked down from this castle and it was a long, steep walk. By then, we were very tired and it was hot. We considered taking a horse carriage, but it looked like the wait would be too long. (We passed several that were on their way up but by then it was too late.) By the time we got down, we were exhausted, but we had survived!
Neuschwanstein is very photogenic, so here is one more photo I took on the walk down.
After dinner at a restaurant in nearby Füssen, we went home and collapsed. Jess slept all night, but I got up a few hours later to work on the blog. While I worked, a thunderstorm came up—the most incredible thunder storm I have ever seen! The thunder was a continuous roll for about 20-30 minutes, and the lightening was constant and bright enough to completely light up the yard behind our flat as well as light up the Alps on an otherwise black night. I could actually continue to hear the thunder in the distance much longer than that but it was not as loud as the storm moved away.
https://youtu.be/Rn1aoIj180I
