It's a Small World After All...

After leaving Dustin in Salzburg, I continued on via train to Munich. With no reservations, no map, but a destination (Wombat's Munich), I was ready for more adventure. I arrived in Munich at 10:30pm after riding the train with folks from Vancouver, Washington. It was really fun to talk to them. As it turned out, we had the same travel plans for the next day (Monday), so we planned on meeting up again.

Arrival in Munich was typical -- and finding Wombat's did not turn out to be quite so much of an adventure. I wandered out of the train station (complete with middle-of-the-night train station sort of people... the kind you are not interested in talking to) and down some of the streets around the station. I knew that Wombat's Munich was near the train station -- I just did not know in which direction :). So, after walking for about half an hour with my good karma leading the way, I found my new home for the next three nights. I checked in and went to the bar only to meet up with a slew of other Americans, most notably an American soldier on leave from Iraq who was traveling around Munich with three of his closest buddies from Illinois. We had a very interesting couple of conversations -- and they, like the folks from the train, were also heading to the same place as me the following day. What a small world!

I woke up in the morning ready for a trip to the castle that the Disneyland Castle was based on: Neuschwanstein (here and here) and its parent castle Hohenshwangau (here and here).

The scenery was gorgeous. I was swept away by it all... It reminded me of Bozeman, Montana, with the Alps in the background and the green fields all around. The train running through the countryside went past little valleys which had walking paths cutting through. Along the paths were benches here and there -- I had fun imagining going on walks in the afternoon and sitting at these benches, reading, thinking, and journaling. The houses all look like those in Leavenworth, WA, with their steeped roofs, whitewashed walls, and wooden shutters with cutouts. It reminded me of the story of Heidi (based in Switzerland, but what I imagined her house to be like). (The picture is actually from the castles, but you can get the idea of what the scenery and day was like...)

After arriving in Fussen (with my Vancouver friends), we took the bus 5 kilometers through town and countryside to the castles' ticket office. The only way to access the castles is by a guided tour, and the English tours leave only every so often. I was lucky -- I had arrived just in time for the start of the English tour of Hohenshwangau followed two hours later by Neuschwanstein.

** On a side note, things got a bit interesting when I went to the ATM to get cash for my trip. Dustin had just given me a new card, with a new PIN, but I was not aware of the change. Needless to say, I could get no money and had only enough to eat and go on the castle tours that day. I quickly went to the Internet station and used a precious euro to email Dustin in hopes that he would get the email in time for me to get some cash so that I could stay at the hostel another night... Otherwise, I would have to cut my trip short! I was anxiously hording money all day long. However, Dustin came through (per usual!) and I was spared having to return early.

Hohenshwangau was destroyed in the middle ages but rediscovered by Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria in the middle of the 1800s. He rebuilt it and it became a summer residence and hunting castle. Quite the place to stay while hunting! There, King Maximillian and his wife Marie had two sons: Ludwig and Otto. Otto was the older brother but was declared insane at a young age; Ludwig assumed the Kingship when his father died. As it turned out, during the completion of his castle, Neuschwanstein, Ludwig was also declared unfit to lead due to insanity. Maybe it was from all of the inbreeding?

Anyway, Hohenshwangau is a beautiful place. It was built around the theme of swans (Neuschwanstein also adopted this motif throughout the building). Here are some pics... First of Hohenshwangau and then of Hohenshwangau looking to Neuschwanstein...





































After touring Hohenshwangua, I sat by the alpine like bordering the castle and had lunch. The next stop, Neuschwanstein, was a 45 minute climb straight uphill, and I needed my energy! Lunch was good and the walk turned out to be invigorating. The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, and there were lots of interesting people to watch. I was pretty grateful to get to the top, however! Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig... He wanted to model the entire castle off of Wagner's operas. Each room that we saw had a theme related to Wagner -- the castle even had a "cave" room, inspired by a part of another Wagnerian opera. I know little about opera and even less about Wagner, but my recollection is that his operas were dramatic, haunting/gothic, and depressing... The castle was eerie -- I would not want to be there at night. The outside, however, is quite cheerful -- probably because I associate it with Disneyland. While we could not take pics of the inside, here are some pics of the view from the castle grounds and of the outside of the castle:























In the distance in back of me, there is a bridge over a waterfall (this pic was taken from the courtyard of Neu.)... below of me looking over that bridge down at the waterfall... and also of Neu from the bridge...






















On the way back down from my hike, I met up briefly with American soldier and friends, but I wanted to get back to Munich before dark. So I bid them adios and continued along my way. That evening, I crashed in bed but ending up reading my book until 1am. Sometimes, a book is just too good to put down! (I have read more novels here than I have in the past two years. What a joy!)