Day 3 Schloss Neushwanstein

Day 3 was the biggest day out during our stay in Germany. A visit to Schloss Neushwanstein - Neushwanstein Castle. As you know it is the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and has appeared in several movies. Its building began in 1869 by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner, the opera composer. The castle was never completed due to a the sudden death of the king. It is now open to the public and apparently over 1.3 million people visit there annually. Yes it's a must see when you visit Germany for sure!!

Maike and Hans kindly did all the driving for us. We got in two separate cars, the girls car and the boys car. We headed to Munich then down south to Fussen. The drive down there was very pleasant. Maike's girls were singing German Christmas songs and Ashley was half asleep so Maike and I had good catch up chats. I didn't know there were no speed limits on the highway in Germany until Maike told me she was driving over 130km/ph! The road was extremely smooth so I didn't notice how fast we were going. 

Such beautiful scenery. 

After 2 1/2 hours drive we got to the bottom of the castle. We had some snacks before heading up to the main event. However, we didn't know there was a loooooong queue at the ticketing office and we had to wait more than an hour! We know know if we go back again we have to queue up as soon as we get there.

To get up to the castle we decided to take the horse carriage instead of the bus. The castle is at an elevation of 800m (2620ft) - very very high!!

We absolutely loved the ride. Being in the forest and looking at beautiful trees and changing leaves was so relaxing. We also had a good view of Schloss Hohenschwangau which was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II and was rebuilt by his father, King Mazimillian II of Bavaria. We didn't visit it as we thought it would be too much for the kids to visit two castles in one day.

Even with the help of the horse carriage we still had to walk a bit to get to the castle.

Almost there but not quite yet...

Stunning view from the lookout:

Finally we were there. Oliver was extra excited as he is now very into castles and knights.

We were given a time for the tour so until then we had a good look around the outside of the castle.

Three musketeers:

Group photo time. This must be the only photo we got both families in during our stay. 

Beauty and the Beasts:

Unfortunately we weren't allow to take any photos inside the Castle. But you can see how it looks here. It was very very luxurious - you can sort of tell why the King ran out of money. Sad thing is that the King only slept 11 nights there!

We stopped at a cafe inside the Castle - this is the view from the balcony. Just stunning.

Later we walked to the suspension bridge in the middle of this photo.

It was quite a walk to get to the bridge. The ups and downs were quite hard for the little people. 

Fantastic view of the Castle. 

We were very happy with the visit. The boys enjoyed it too. Somehow they still had lots of energy after lots of walking!

Our day didn't end here. We continued our journey up North towards Ulm. Let me blog about it on the next post.