Jane and Ken's 2014 Adventure: Day 196: Tuesday 30 September – Bavaria: Ludwig’s Schlosses and Wieskirche, by Ken

The tramp down Mount Jenner on Sunday was still having a noticeable effect. We both still had very tight calves and quads. The long walk to the amenities block (we had parked about as far away as it was possible to get) helped to loosen them a bit, but we were both far from right.

At 7:00 I drove Smarty towards the camping ground owner’s house thinking I could sit in Smarty and use wi-fi. I couldn’t, I had to take the chair right next to the house that I had used yesterday. There was a message from BNZ saying the deposit I had paid for our accommodation in Goa had been returned as the payee’s account didn’t exist. I passed the message on to Clemente in Goa. I sent Sue an Ecard for her birthday tomorrow.

The sky had a light overcast first thing, but heavy cloud seemed to be building away to the north. Jane decided not to hang last night’s laundry out, instead we just hung our towels under the awning after we had showered.

We were on the road in Smarty at 9:00 heading for Hohenschwangau about 80km away. Our route took us along an autobahn where we experienced our first taste of German driving on roads without a speed limit. While Smarty burbled along at a comfortable 110kph we were left standing by BMWs and Audis rocketing past us. It was difficult to judge how fast some were travelling, but it must have been at least 160kph.

We left the autobahn after about 20km and took roads through farming country with cows grazing in neatly manicured pastures. We passed through lots of villages, the architecture was still alpine and lots of houses were decorated with frescoes.

There's Waikato Supporters in Germany!

Church Near Hohenschwangau

It was just on 10:00 when we parked in Hohenschwangau. The village was already busy with tourists pouring out of lots of tour busses. After an hour in Smarty it took a few minutes to get our stiff legs going again, we walked up to the ticket office for the two castles and museum we wanted to visit. It was a masterpiece of German organisation and simply buying three tickets was completely out of the organiser’s psyche. We were given a ticket for a guided tour No.141 in English of Schloss Hohenchwangen at 11:25, another for Tour No. 465 of Schloss Neuschwanstein at 13:25 and a third for the museum of Bavarian Kings that we could visit any time up to 19:00. With the tickets came a pamphlet with instructions to be in the courtyard of each castle to begin tours. Also, to be there on time otherwise “you miss the tour. No refund!” We saw from the pamphlet that guided tours were given in German and English and audio tours were available in 12 languages. A complex timetable of guided and audio tours appeared on video screens, one tour or another seemed to start every five minute.

Tour Options

We had a bit of time to kill before our first tour and walked down to Lake Alpsee. Looming on the hill above us was Schloss Hohenchwangen. We took a seat by the lake for a while. Standing up again was painful, our leg muscles were definitely not happy.

Lake Alpsee

Schloss Hohenschwangau

We walked up a steep winding road to the Schloss Hohenschwangau arriving in plenty of time for our 11:25 tour – we had heeded the warnings! We watched the minutes tick away on a video screen next to some turnstiles. On the dot of 11:25 Tour Number 141 appeared on the screen and we made our way through the turnstiles where we were directed to enter the castle and wait in the hall for our guide. Our guide was a Nigella Lawson look-alike (unfortunately, photographs were not permitted inside the castle, so there is no record of her.

Here's some shots taken outside the castle.

Schloss Kitchen

Neuschwanstein From Hohenschwangau

Schloss Hohenschwangau was bought as a ruin by Maximilian II, Ludwig II’s father. Maximillian rebuilt it in a neo- Gothic style and the family used it as a summer home. Ludwig spent much of his childhood there.

Ludwig unexpectedly became king aged 18 on the death of his father in 1863 and a few years later he withdrew to Hohenschwangau and had it changed to his liking. Amongst other things he had the ceiling of his bedroom painted as heaven complete with stars – candlelight projecting through holes in the ceiling. Our tour took us around about the one third of the castle that had been restored. We saw Ludwig’s bedroom, complete with star studded ceiling, and a bedroom used by Richard Wagner on frequent visits after Ludwig became his lifelong patron. The rooms were richly decorated and furnished, Ludwig first heard the legend of Lohengrin, the Swan Knight, at Hohenschwangau and frescos on the theme decorate the house. The castle had a warm, homely feel to it.

The timing of the tours ran like German clockwork, every now and again we came across the 11:30 and 11:35 tour groups with their German speaking guides.

After our tour we had time to visit the gift shop where we bought a small stein as a reminder of Germany. In an annex to the gift shop we were able to see the castle’s restored kitchen’s. Then we walked back down into the town and took a bus up to a terminus above Schloss Neuschwanstein. From the terminus we took a short walk up a hill to the Marinebrücke where an ornate iron footbridge providing a fantastic view of the castle.

Schloss Neuschwanstein Seen From Marinebrucke

Jane on Marinebruche

Marinebrucke Seen From Schloss Neuschwanstein

Lake Alpsee and Schloss Hohenschwangau From Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Hohenschwangau From Schloss Neuschwanstein

We walked down to the castle, again arriving in good time for our 13:25 tour. A group of schoolboys were eager to get through the turnstiles ahead of their allotted time but the gates were obviously programmed not to allow people through until their proper time. As before, our tour number came up spot on time and, as before, we were asked to enter the castle and wait for our guide. Also, as before, photography was not allowed inside the castle.

In 1867 Ludwig decided to create a German medieval castle on a peak opposite Schloss Hohenschwangau. By then Ludwig was on a roll, in 1868 he embarked on the construction of a small palace on the site of hishunting lodge at Linderhof in the style of Louis XIV’s summer residence at Trianon in the gardens of Versailles, Ludwig being a great admirer of Louis XIV. Then in 1878 construction started on a palace at Herrenchiemsee with a façade that was the exact replica of Versailles and an interior that had some of Versailles’ features, e.g. a hall of mirrors. The palace also hadgrounds containing some of the features of Versailles.

Schloss Neuschwanstein From Hohenschwangau

Entrance to Schloss Neuschwanstein

This Couple Took Dozens of Selfies, But No Shots of the Castle!

Neuschwanstein was designed by Eduard Riedel and Georg Dollman (who went on to design Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee) based on drawings by Christian Jank, a theatre designer. The castle wasn’t ready for Ludwig to move into until 1884 and even then it was unfinished. We were aware the castle was a complete contrast to Schloss Hohenschwangau. Whereas the latter was a warm, homely place, Neuschwanstein was a complete flight of fancy. One of the most bizarre features was a vast throne room modeled on the Bizantine church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. (Having seen both, Ludwig’s version was much more ornate). His throne, however, was never built as he died before the castle was completed. His bedroom was also something else with an ornately carved wooden bed in Gothic style with a wooden canopy resembling an ornate church altar. Other idiosyncrasies were a candlelit grotto and a telephone connected to Neuschwanstein. The highlight of the rooms we saw was undoubtedly the amazing Singer’s Hall that takes up the whole of the top floor. The decoration can only be described as fabulous and would be an amazing sight at night illuminated by many candelabra. Perversely, however, the hall was never conceived as a concert hall, rather as a monument and concerts were never held there in Ludwig’s time.

With the notable exception of the Throne Room and the Singer’s Hall the castle was a dour place – dark and uninviting. Our guide told us that wouldn’t have mattered to Ludwig. He had become a recluse and nocturnal to boot, going to bed at sunrise and eating breakfast at dusk. That also explained the absence of a dining table of any size, Ludwig did not invite guests to the castle.

By 1885 Ludwig was insolvent, his building programme had cost well over 30 million marks at a time when his annual income was 4 million and he was suppotying Richard Wagner and the Bayreuth festival as well as donating large sums to Munich theatres and giving generous gifts. By 1886 he was in debt to the tune of 14 million marks and rumours begin to spread that his appetite for building monuments and his increasing withdrawal from public life suggested Ludwig was insane.

In 1875 Otto, Ludwig’s brother, was declared insane and in 1886 it suited the government to declare Ludwig insane. This was done without him being seen by the psychiatrist who made the declaration and without Ludwig’s physicians being consulted. Ludwig was taken to the Castle of Berg near Lake Starnberg. The next day he and Bernhard von Gudden, the psychiatrist didn’t return from a walk near the lake and their bodies were found in shallow water in the lake. Ostensibly, they drowned, but many believe this was not the case. What a sad end for a man who may have been flawed, but who created some wonderful buildings. Construction of Neuschwanstein was terminated on Ludwig’s death and never completed. Nevertheless, what he created is probably the godfather of fairy tale castles.

We started to walk back down to the village stopping at a restaurant for a late lunch. I had pork with pasta in a mushroom sauce while Jane went for something as Bavarian as possible – wurst and fries followed by yeast pudding which came as a white heavy yeasty hemisphere swimming in custard.

Jane's Yeast Pudding

We continued back to the village where we visited the Museum Der Bayerische Könige which gave the history of the Kings of Bavaria. It was yet another very good German exhibition with a free and very informative audio guide.

We set a course for home taking a detour to the hamlet of Wies to visit the Wieskirche. Wies became a place of pilgrimage in the 18^th century after a farmer’s wife spotted tears coming from an abandoned figure of Christ. In 1745 a church was built that now attracts enormous numbers of tourists each year. Externally, the church didn’t look particularly special, but the interior just blew our socks off. It was absolutely stunningly decorated in the Rococo style in pastel shades. It is so good it is regarded as the pinnacle of the Rococo style and features on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.