Wednesday, October 8, 2008

neuschwanstein castle

after munich we headed to a town called fussen, on the southern border of germany. fussen recently celebrated its 700th birthday and was the cutest little village ever.



fussen is also home to two famous castles, hohenschwangau and neuschwanstein. they're only about 200 and 150 years old, respectively, but they were really amazing.

here's hohenschwangau...we didn't tour this one:



instead we walked up an insane mountain (it puts byu's hill of death to shame) to tour neuschwanstein. it was built for king ludwig II, who was allegedly a bit of a whoopsie if you know what i'm saying. he was kicked out of the castle when only 14 rooms were done because he was judged "unfit to rule"...and then he mysteriously died a few months later. very suspicious.

regardless, he did a great job designing the castle. so much so that neuschwanstein was actually the inspiration behind sleeping beauty's castle at disneyland. fun fact.







like i said, we hiked up really high.



view from the top:



we took a tour of the castle, or rather of the 14 rooms that were finished at his death. our tour guide was hilarious, complete with high-pitched voice and random hand gestures...i think HE was a bit of a whoopsie. ask brandon to do the impression of the guide the next time you see him. i still laugh just thinking about it.

then we hiked up even higher to get cool pictures of the castle. which was being renovated on the exterior. bummer. still a cool picture though.



one of the funnest parts of this portion of the trip was that we stayed in a bed&breakfast just down the hill from the castle. in the picture below, the wall on the right is our hotel -- to give you a little perspective.



i had never stayed in a b&b before...it was a little strange feeling like i was staying in some random grandma's house or whatnot. we had a tiny shower and sink in our room but had to walk down the hall to use a shared bathroom. the owner was really nice and even fixed us a delicious breakfast in the morning.





and that was fussen.

5 comments:

Jean said...

Wow. SO pretty.

Leisel said...

Okay, so if I ever make it to Europe, will you design my trip for me? You guys came up with some fun things to do! I would be clueless!

Brandon and Erica said...

hey! We stayed in tons of B&Bs while we were on our "holiday" too! :-)
I love them, but you are right...kinda feels like you're staying at Gma's house. One of our B&Bs made me feel like I was an actress in "Watcher in the Woods"...possibly the scariest movie I have ever seen. You can imagine I didn't sleep well that night.

AND..that castle is beautiful!

dana said...

Cute arm warmers!
So glad I got to see you last night. As always, fun catching up. And now I won't see you for weeks again! Have fun in Hotlanta!

schnazdoodle said...

AH! I love Neuschwanstein! I HATE that hill. Like. Woah. When I finally got up it, I felt the blood rush back into my calves, haha.

Have to slightly correct you though -- he wasn't kicked out so much as he was arrested at the top of the stairs (your tour guide should have pointed that out) and dragged out... and then died under mysterious circumstances in a lake with his doctor a few days later. :)

I'm jealous though -- I didn't make it to the bridge. Next time. :)

Off to read more... I've been waiting for your final updates! LOL!