“The Great Castle Journey” as Teesh and I have affectionately named this part of our trip was a looooong time planning. Considering the fact that it consisted of one day out of a total of 31 days that I had with Teesh during her trip over here we spent a very disproportionate amount of the last six months planning for it – I would say at least 50% of our emails and phone conversations were about “The Great Castle Journey”!! I can’t even begin to think how many discussion boards we read or internet sites we hit. Ordinarily this trip wouldn’t have been to hard to plan except that we only had one day in which to carry it off and that one day was going to be cut short by the fact I had to get to the airport in time to catch a plane back to London. So, there were all sorts of factors to take into consideration such as whether we’d be able to make a five minute connection between trains, how long exactly it would take us to move between the two castles that we wanted to visit etc. Teesh thought it would be a relatively achievable journey from Munich and in the end we made it with plenty of time to spare, though we certainly spent a fair amount of time on buses and trains getting there.

Germany is known for its great and many castles and the most famous one surely has to be Neuschwanstein Castle in Hohenschwangau. I didn’t realise it until we started planning but there are actually two castles at Hohenschwangau: Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle with the former being the more well-known. The tourism council at Hohenschwangau are obviously quite crafty as they offer a combo King’s ticket that allows you to visit both castles for a slightly discounted price (a €1 saving.)

Hohenschwangau Castle was built by King Ludwig II’s father, King Maximilian II, from the ruins of another castle. I guess King Ludwig’s inspiration for Neuschwanstein came from his father as Hohenschwangau is where he actually grew up and King Maximilian II definitely had an eye for the fairytale. It’s a shame that you’re not allowed pictures inside of either castle – though of course that didn’t stop other cheeky people taking some snaps.

Neuschwanstein Castle is the fairytale castle which was the inspiration behind the Walt Disney signature castle that first featured in Cinderella. The castle was built by King Ludwig II (‘Mad King Ludwig’) as a homage to Richard Wagner. Building began in 1869 but the castle was never finished and in fact King Ludwig II himself only stayed in the castle for half a year. Prior to completion King Ludwig II was declared insane and then not long after this was found drowned in a lake. The mystery of his death has never been solved – whether it was death by murder, suicide or accident no one has a clue.

Entry into castles is strictly managed and you are expected to take timed visits as part of a group on a tour to visit the interior. During peak times I would highly recommend pre-booking your tickets to the castle(s) as this not only assures you that you get the times you prefer but also saves you wasting time in the long queues consisting of all the walk-ins .. of which there are many! It’s a few euro extra but definitely worth it in time saved. This is what we did as we thought that the success of our mission really depended on us getting exactly the trains and exactly the entry times at the castles that we’d planned for. The only annoying condition is that you have to pick up your tickets one hour before your first castle entry … annoying if you are relying on public transport to get there on time!

This is what we hoped would happen:

– 7.51am: Catch the train departing Mϋnchen Hbf and arriving at Buchloe at 8.41am
– 8.46am: Cross the platform to catch the train departing for Fϋssen Bahnhof to arrive at 9.57am
– 10.00am: Take a taxi from Fϋssen to the town of Hohenschwangau (10 to 15 mins). We could have also caught the bus but weren’t sure how often they departed and how long it would take
– 10.20am: Pick up our tickets and walk to first castle (10-20 min walk/climb)
– 11.20am: Hohenschwangau Castle tour (35-40 minutes)
– 12.00pm: Make way to Neuschwanstein Castle via Mary’s Bridge (Marien Brϋcke) 15 min bus ride to Marien Brϋcke, some time to take photos from the Bridge as it is the best place for pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle, then 15 min walk to the castle from the bridge.
– 13.25pm: Neuschwanstein Castle tour (35-40 minutes)
– 2.00pm: Take horse-carriage back down to the centre of town
– 2.44pm: Take the bus back to Fϋssen
– 3.07pm: Catch the direct train back to Mϋnchen Hbf arrive 17.07pm
– 5.10pm: Pick up my back pack previously stored in a left-luggage locker
– 6.05pm: Catch s-bahn to airport arriving at 6.46pm.
– 7.15pm: Check-in for flight back to London.

A pretty tight schedule! We arrived in Munich from Innsbruck early on Saturday evening (its only a two hour train journey between Innsbruck and Germany) to find that the weather was going to be postcard perfect for “The Great Castle Journey”:

Upon arrival in Munich we only had time for a quick visit to the train station to confirm our trains for “The Great Castle Journey” and a meal at one of the beer halls. It was lucky that we checked the trains because we found out that there were ENGINEERING WORKS! I couldn’t believe it – I thought I’d left that kind of thing back in London!! This put a major kink in our plans because instead of getting a train from Buchloe to Fϋssen we had to rely on a shuttle bus to get there and there was no guarantee we’d make it in time to pick up or tickets.

Well, all that worry was for nothing! We made it in plenty of time to pick up our tickets for our original booking and it all went off without a hitch. In fact, even though both the tours of the castles went for a bit longer than expected we still had more than enough time to see both castles and the surrounds. I would have appreciated a bit more time to climb the peak near Marien Brϋcke because apparently that’s where all the classic pics of the Neuschwanstein Castle come from but I was happy with the ones we took. As it was the Castle was covered in scaffolding anyway.

The insides of both castles were pretty cool and fantastically imaginative. If you only have time for one castle I would think that Hohenschwangau Castle is the better one to tour simply because Neuschwanstein Castle was only party finished. After all, you can still see Neuschwanstein Castle from the outside and the exterior is really what its most famous for.

My favourite part of the day was probably standing on Marien Brϋcke and looking out at Neuschwanstein Castle and the amazing vista. Despite the millions of tourists buzzing around me I felt such a sense of peace – probably from the fact we actually made it there to see this wonderful castle and also from the fact it was such a brilliant day weather-wise. Simply picture perfect.

When I got home, as in back to London, I realised that I’d taken all sorts of public transport today: German train, German bus, Horse & Carriage, Plane, London train and London tube. The only thing missing really was to drive myself in a car or ride a bike …