Bucket list FINALLY a return to Neuschwanstein

FINALLY!!  I made it back to my fantasy castle. The first and last time I took a actual tour was 1984 when I took a 9 day trip to 4 European countries. The reason I picked the tour was to visit Neuschwanstein,  (Disney modeled his Sleeping Beauty Castle after it) I had fallen in love with it in the early 70's seeing a framed photo of it at my Aunt Mary's house in Ireland.  The castle was the home of Mad King Ludwig It was then I found out the difference between "see" and "visit", we arrived in and Hohenschwangua and we were able to view the castle from below but we were unable to visit because we were not there long enough to get in line and go up. I was so disappointed and then as a "surprise" we were stopping at Linderhof Castle, which was another of Ludwigs but I could not really enjoy since we did not stop at  after that we stopped at Ludwig Linderhof but did not really enjoy it. 

standing at Alpsee Lake

Hohenschwangua Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle from below

I decided to go with a day tour group because getting there on my own was a bit complicated and I would have to leave early and take a train to one spot and changed and if I missed the train that would end that. I booked the tour and arrived early  I was paranoid i would somehow miss the tour.  When we boarded the train we were unable to have the car but the guide laughingly suggested when someone walked into the car for us to say good morning  to ourselves trying to have car to say good morning and smile and most people continued on looking for another car.  The guide was awesome he knew a lot about Ludwig and told stories. We arrived at the castle and he went to get our tickets and came back with the news that we had to wait awhile to go in. There was too much snow so we were unable to take the path to the Bridge and see the castle front view from there as it was closed. So we walked over to Alpsee Lake and viewed Hohenschwangua across it while he told us some stories. Finally we started a slow climb up he took my camera bags for the climb up and a woman with her family said she would walk with me which was very sweet of her it was quite a climb and with my knees did not climb up to fast. We finally arrived near the top and a few people looked in the shops and I enjoyed the view of my Castle.





















The woman who has sold me the ticket for the tour convinced me to buy the ticket costing 17 euro to me it was not worth it. We were rushed through the rooms had a few minutes in each for a quick look and explanation and move on the tour was 30 minutes.  You were not allowed to take photos. We really had to rush when we came out, since we only had a certain amount of time to get leave the castle and head down to the town for the bus. I decided to start walking down as not to be rushed. I met a really sweet girl from India who said she would walk with me. She walked quite fast I felt like we were flying but some how the down hill did not bother me as much as I thought it would and had an interesting  talk. We beat so many others down. We had to wait a bit for the bus and then made it for a train, I listened to another story the guide told about Ludwigs mysterious death. Ludwig had been declared insane and  deposed and he was found dead several days later drowned and was considered a suicide but there belief by many he was murdered   

view from the window

replica of the Castle