Day 50: Füssen
When I think back on my time in Europe, the Neuschwanstein Castle in Füssenis one of the most prominent images to come to mind. As someone on Tripadvisor described, it really is the “castliest of castles.”
The morning of our day trip to Füssen dawned cold and rainy as it had in southern Germany for the past few days. We had to catch a couple train connections to get there, and unfortunately, a 10 minute delay caused us to miss a connection and wait another hour. Even though we had gotten up at 7, by the time we got our tickets and grabbed a quick lunch, it was past 1PM.
As our tour of the castle wasn't until 3, we headed over to Swan Lake first.
Not only was the lake itself gorgeous, with the beautiful silhouettes of the mountains in the background, but all of the visible surrounding areas were breathtaking in every direction we looked. In addition to the main castle that was on the very top of the hill, there was also a smaller castle and some lovely buildings nearby.
Fortunately, we were even able to see a family of swans on Swan Lake. As a small paddling of ducks approached, we watched as one of the swan parents took off chasing them away. A very courageous little duck fiercely stood its ground and the duck and swan proceeded to have a fiery standoff and chase around the lake for the next ten minutes.
From there, we hopped on a horse carriage up to the main castle for our tour. It was raining again at this point and the shelter was very welcome on the half hour ride up.
Neuschwanstein Castle looks like the most stereotypical fairytale castle ever. King Ludwig II, described as a shy dreamer, had had it built for him to withdraw from public life. The inside was entirely decorated with scenes and quotations from the King's favourite books.
At the very end of the tour was a balcony that opened up to one of the most stunning views I'd ever seen in my life. The entire countryside was laid out before us -- a patchwork of fields with the Alps rising majestically in the background. The scene was surreal.
Our last stop before heading back down was to the Marien bridge, which stretched across a very tall, narrow waterfall.
People had put love locks on the already thin bridge, and while I'd typically love the idea, this was probably not the best bridge to have a weak infrastructure.
The main castle was in full view from the bridge and it really was the most magical scene. I could easily imagine a fairytale taking place right there. It had all the elements: horse-drawn carriages, snow-capped mountains hidden behind wisps of fog, a waterfall, river, Swan Lake, gorges, and the most perfect looking castle in the centre of it all. I would go back again and again just to see this view, though preferably on a sunnier day next time. It was easy to see why Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle was based on Neuschwanstein.
We took a horse carriage down the hill as it was raining quite hard once more. I had a rather watery latte in one of the cafés in the small town at the base before we hopped on a train to Munich.
Photos by Julie Zhang.