Neuschwanstein Castle: The most beautiful place in Germany

I think this past weekend I went to the most beautiful and amazing place I have ever seen: The Neuschwanstein Castle in Southwest Bavaria, Germany. This castle was constructed by King Ludwig the second in the late 1800’s however only 1/3 of it was completed due to the king’s death. The death of the king is also very interesting because it is an unsolved mystery. It is believed that his family murdered him, but every time someone attempts to look into his death his family puts a stop to it and mysteriously the few pieces of evidence they had from the night he died randomly disappeared or were destroyed in random fires. Very suspicious right? Anyways, along with the interesting history behind this castle it is honestly an amazing sight. It lies up on a forested hill that overlooks the Hohenschwangau Castle, multiple lakes, the Alps, and various villages. It also has a river that runs by it with multiple waterfalls. Also, another interesting fact about this castle is that it was the inspiration behind Walt Disney's castles. Honestly just thinking about it makes me smile because I loved our trip there so much and I am so happy that I can share it with everyone. 

I was in Munich this past weekend and a group of 5 of us decided that we really wanted to see this castle. The only bad thing was that it was a 2 hour train ride away, but we all figured that it was worth it. So Saturday morning we all woke up super early and headed to the train station. We wanted to figure out what was going to be the cheapest and fastest way to get there. We looked up prices for renting a car, prices for a train ticket, and the price of a tour. In the end the cheapest and fastest choice was to go with a tour group there. We were a little skeptical about this because tours are usually quite boring and we would rather do things on our own but we decided to risk it.

                                   (Train ride to the Neuschwanstein Castle)

So we got on a train for the 2 hour ride and headed to the castle. Once we arrived in the village we stopped at this little restaurant to get food and to use the restroom and then we were taken on a little tour of the village. First stop was at the Hohenschwangau Castle, which was King Ludwig’s family’s summer home. From there we went over to one of the various lakes to take pictures as well as to take in the beautiful sight. After this though it was time for us to take the hike up the hill to the castle. I don’t know how long or high up we went, but it definitely was a work out to get up there. However, if you have bad knees or something and cannot make the hike up there, there are horse-drawn carriages and buses that go up there. Once we made it to the top we went to various look out points to take in the beauty of the area and then we headed to the castle.

                                          (Us infront of the Hohenschwangau Castle)

(One of the lakes)

                                               (Views of the villages from a look out point)

                          (Different images of the Castle up close and personal)

Included in our tour was a ticket to go inside of the castle and the have a half hour tour. Unfortunately, you were not allowed to take pictures, however my friends and I could not help but be sneaky and snap a few shots even though they are of poor quality. The inside was beautiful! There was gold everywhere, very intricate woodwork, windows everywhere, murals and paintings everywhere, a chapel inside, etc. When inside we got to see the thrown room, the servants quarters, the king’s bedroom, his bathroom, his personal chapel, various hallways, a room that looked like plays were held there, and the kitchen. To me this didn’t seem like a lot of rooms to visit, but then I had to remember that the castle was not finished yet so therefore one could not really see what the rest of the castle was going to look like.

After we toured the inside our tour guide took us on another hike through the foothills around the castle. There were once again various look out points, but the coolest place we went to was a bridge that gave you the most beautiful sight of the castle. It was beyond breathtaking. Then, once we were done taking in this sight and taking pictures we started on our hike down. However instead of taking the paved path, she took us on a trail that went past the waterfalls and was all along the river. This was amazing as well. The water was so clear and the waterfalls were so pretty. At one point my friends and I stopped to play in the water. This was just the perfect ending to the perfect trip.

                                                  (Views from another look out point)

                                       (View from the bridge of the Neuschwanstein Castle)

                                   (Photos of the hike down along the river) 

When we finally made it back down to the village we loaded up on food and headed back to the train station. Once on the train my friends and I discussed that this was the best tour that we had gone on and we were so happy that we chose to go on it. If we had gone by ourselves we would have never seen or done everything that we had done in that day. It was cheap too. For the roundtrip train ride, the tour, and the ticket to go into the castle, and a tip for our tour guide we each spent about 50 euros. We also all agreed that this was the most fun and best thing that we have done in the past 4 weeks that we had been in Germany.

Therefore, for anyone who plans to go to Germany in the future I urge you to make the trip out to Southern Germany and visit the Neuschwanstein Castle. You definitely will not be disappointed at all.