Fairy Tale Castles

I think so far King Ludwig is my favorite character in all of German History. I'm a little disappointed they took his power away and then he died so young. (Under mysterious circumstanes, I might add. Which I guess adds to the intrigue that was his life.)

So nestled in the Alps, are the two fairy-tale like castles of King Ludwig- The smaller castle he grew up in- Hohenschwangau, and the unfinished castle of Schloss Neuschwanstein.

Hohenschwangau was the family vacation house or hunting lodge. A shack, really.

King Ludwig built Neuschwanstein where he did because he "liked the view" (I liked it too. Amazing.) The whole catle was supposed to be a tribute to his favorite opera writer- Wagner. You can't take pictures inside the castle (they'd rather you pay ten Euros for the book) but the rooms we saw were gorgeous. I think they said it took 17 wood craftsmen 4 years just to do the carvings and wood work in Ludwig's bedroom. (which he only slept in for about 6 months) We also hiked up to St. Mary's bridge (Marienbrucke) to see the view from there. Oh, and then there were the lakes. I can't say when I've seen such naturally occurring color like that. They say the lake is so clean, you can almost drink it. Almost.

Luckily we took Rick's advice (Rick Steves- the travel guru) and got there early. By the time we left the place was swarming with tourists)