Day 8 Neuschwanstein Schloß and back to Weiden
Today we started out with another yummy traditional German
breakfast. Rolls, meat, cheese, jams, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, fruit,
and veggies. After breakfast we put all our stuff in the car and went
for a walk with Dan to the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that Alana
was having a hard time standing up. So we went and found a horse and
carriage ride to take up the mountain to the castle. The girls thought
it was awesome. As soon as the carriage started they both giggled. The
horses work really hard to pull 10-15 people plus the carriage straight
up the hill. It is so hard on the horses that they are only allowed to
do 4 trips before they are switched out to give them a break. It takes
about 30 minutes to get up the hill. Naomi was almost ready to go to
sleep when we got to the top.
We had a little time to kill before our scheduled tour of the
castle started so we checked out the shops and explored the courtyard of
the castle.
King Ludwig had this castle built because he loved the romantic
views, and exploring the castle ruins there. The castle is built on top
of the ruins. They worked on it for 17 years before the king was
arrested because of a medical report that said he was crazy. They took
him to a prison and later that day went on a walk with his psychiatrist.
They never returned and few hours later thier bodies were found in the
lake. No one knows what happened. He was about 40 years old. Work on
the castle immediately stopped because he was spending way too much on
the castle, along with two others being built at the same time. It was
never finished. Rumor from the time was that the King was murdered
because he was bankrupting the country with his lavish plans. He only
stayed at the castle for 167 days. He had no wife or children. The name
of the castle, Neuschwanstein, means New Swan Stone. It is decorated in
blue, his favorite color, and swans. He want to live like he was in the
scenes from his favorite operas and stories. So the walls were painted
in a bunch of different scenes from operas.
There is an awesome balcony with an amazing view. It was closed
because of the wind storm. But we saw it from the ground. At the end
they show a short video about what the plans had for the rest of the
castle. They mentioned that King Ludwig had plans for another castle
that was never started. It was going to be like a church inside. His
bedroom was to be "The King's Holy of Holies." His washing area was like
a baptistry. Everything in both castles was very lavish. Of course we
couldn't take pictures inside. I loved the blue fabric every where and
the lovely paintings everywhere of the kings and operas.
After the tour we walked back down the hill. The sun was out and
was nice and warm. Probably on the few times it has happened on the
trip. When we got to the bottom we met up with Dana and Tristan and had
lunch at a bratwurst stand. Then we started the three and a half hour
drive back to Dan and Danas house. Will decided he wanted to be the
leader so he buzzed past Dan and Dana and we played chase on the
autobahn. It was hillarious. It was crazy though because it was the
craziest weather Dan had ever seen there. It was in the news as one of
the worst storms recorded. The wind was blowing trees over everywhere we
looked, roof tiles were blowing off the roofs, and we even saw a truck
tipped over on its side. Once we got home we relaxed and cleaned up. And
later that evening we introduced Dan and Dana to the IT Crowd, one of
Will's favorite shows.
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