Schwangau, 16 Oct 2019
While it was nice to walk around Füssen the day before, the reason we stayed there was because it was conveniently located to Schwangau with its two star attractions, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, the Königsschlösser or the King’s castles. We spent most of the day in the area, and also did some hiking and took a ride up Tegelberg for the views.
Because the castles are very popular attractions, the best bet is to reserve tickets ahead of time. We took a look a long time in advance, but they were already taken. It seemed that no tickets would be released as we got closer to the date, so we would check again. Our backup plan would be to get to the ticket office early and see what we could get.
A few days before, Melody checked and there was some availability. We were to pick up the tickets at 8:30 (when the ticket office opens) for a 10:00 tour of Neuschwanstein and 11:55 of Hohenschwangau. That was the reverse of what we were thinking, since there were other things we were wanting to do, and we would be less crunched got time if we saw Hohenschwangau first. Ah well, we were sure we could make it work.
Since we needed to head to the bus stop before breakfast would be served at the hostel, we ate the food we got the night before then headed to the bus stop at the train station.
There seemed to be a bunch of students also waiting for the bus as well as a few tourists. Boarding, we showed our Füssen cards, and the bus driver let us on even though they didn’t show as being activated. That was nice of him. After a few stops, we got off and tried to orient ourselves to find the ticket building. We were quite early, but since we had purposefully caught the bus before the one that would get us there on time, we were expecting that.
We walked around a bit, but as people started queuing up, we got in line, being the first ones in the line for reserved tickets. There only seemed to be a narrow doorway, and we couldn’t figure out how the two lines of anxious tourists would get through it, at least without tempers flying.
As 8:30 approached, the four reserved tickets started growing, and the one for unreserved purchases got quite long. There were also a few people on the side who were group leaders; one woman made sure to explain she was purchasing for a tour since she had had to explain before how she wasn’t cutting in line.
People inside started moving queue barriers, positioning signs, then stood there, waiting for 8:30. Right on time, the lights went on, then a wide segment of what we thought were just windows started to slide into the ground. That answered the access question.
Tickets purchased, we had 90 minutes to get up to Neuschwanstein.
Mary’s Bridge
As far as we could tell, the quickest path up there the hill should have been about 30 minutes and the normal path about 40. We figured we would have time to go to Mary’s Bridge first (near Neuschwanstein), since we weren’t confident we would have time between the castles, and we were trying to avoid to go up the hill later on the day. We tried to find the quickest path but weren’t having much luck. We did see a sign for the bridge which said it was about 40 minutes. We figured that would give us enough time since it was supposed to be about 15 minutes from the bridge to the castle. There was a trail beyond the bridge which takes you higher for a better view, but we weren’t sure if we would have time for that.
We figured, just by looking how high up the Castle was combined with taking the shortest route, that’s would be in for a steep hike; and that it was; we gained about 525 feet. We must have been going quite a bit faster than most people because we got to the bridge in less than half an hour. We were breathing heavily, true, but the discrepancy surprised us.
There were a couple of other people on the bridge, but a bus was emptying out as we were walking past, so we hurried out and were rewarded with breathtaking views. Because of the time, Neuschwanstein was in shadows while the valley behind was in bright sunlight, but you could imagine how the white stone would glow in the sun. We turned around and saw a deep gorge between mountains full of fall color. Worth the effort.
We still had almost an hour before our tour time, so we continued on the bridge to see if we could find the path to the bluff above the bridge, noting the time we thought we should turn around if we couldn’t.
About five minutes later we got an even more commanding view of the castle and looking down could see that the bridge was swarming with people. We got there at a good time.
Knowing we would have to get across the bridge through that crowd, we headed down. Making our way through the tourists taking pictures, we made it to the castle with a half-hour to spare. On the way, there were great views of Hohenschwangau, as well as Mary's Bridge and a huge waterfall below it.
Neuschwanstein
We checked out the entrance and how things would work. There were turnstiles with scanners where you put in tour ticket to gain access. Above, there was a display of the tour which was currently entering and the next few. Prominent on the corner was the official time; if you missed your entry time, tour ticket would become worthless.
There was a terrace above the entry area, so we went up there to look at the back part of the castle which we couldn’t see very well from below.
As entry time came, people began to crowd around the entry. As the clock switched to 10:00, tickets got scanned and we walked up the exterior stairway to go in the castle. We each picked up audio guide wands and waited for the tour to start.
There were about 60 of us in the group, and it looked like groups were spaces between 5 and 15 minutes apart. To keep things moving, the tour guide controlled the audio guide, and no photos were allowed (also presumably for copyright reasons). Doors were closed off as we all squeezed into each room to separate the tours apart.
There was a lot of restoration work going on, both outside and inside. The large dining hall had scaffolding in almost half of it, but we could see the details in the other half.
Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig on the ruins of an old castle but was built using materials of the time during its mid- to late-19th-century construction. The design is very romantic, and its location on the hill guarantees it will be seen from very far away. There seemed to be a bit of everything, including a grotto and a huge throne room.
The castle was one of the Nazis’ primary secret stashes door stolen art. It took almost 50 rail cars to redistribute the art.
After we were done with the tour, we had about an hour to get down to Hohenschwangau.
Pöllat Gorge
Having gotten a better feel for the time estimates on the signs and our normal pace, we decided we would be able to walk down through the Pöllat Gorge. There were more great views of Mary's Bridge and the waterfall, but as we walked along the Pöllat River, there were lots of small waterfalls all along the way.
The trail started with a bunch of steps going down, then was level for quite a bit. We knew we had to lose a lot of altitude, and then we saw a metal walkway with lots of stairs. It was attached to the side of a sheer rock cliff, and was open grating, both for the walkway and the steps. We were pretty careful that we didn't trip since it didn't look like a pleasant trip down to the water.
Towards the end of the metal walkway, there was a place where part of the river was diverted to a sluice, presumably used for power.
We made it back to the ticket office, and still had some time left, so we walked down to take a look at Alpsee, the lake below Hohenschwangau. It was extremely picturesque, and if we had time, we would have walked all the way around. Instead, we took the path up to wait for our entrance time to Hohenschwangau.
Hohenschwangau
We had a few extra minutes after getting to Hohenschwangau, so we walked around the gardens a bit. There were a lot more people milling around, probably because it was later in the day. Just like at Neuschwanstein, people started crowding around the entry gate as it got closer to time.
When we entered, we were expecting the group to be smaller, since both tour books and a tour group leader we were standing near mentioned that. As it ended up, the group was almost as large as our Neuschwanstein one.
Instead of an audio tour, we were led by someone speaking English. Going through this castle, the tour groups were once again separated by 5 or 10 minutes, and there was more interleaving of groups. Even so, the groups didn't seem to interfere with each other. The castle seemed to be of a more human scale.
Hohenschwangau was originally built in the 12th century, then ruined by Napoleon. King Maximilian II (father of Ludwig) rebuilt it in 1830, and the royal family used it until 1912.
The Queen's rooms were on the first floor, and the king's on the second. There was a secret passage that connected their two rooms (our guide called them hanky-panky doors).
There were some windows with great views of Alpsee, and another with a view of Neuschwanstein (and a telescope was set in that room indicating that Ludwig would look through to watch the progress of the castle's construction).
Having finished with the castles, it was time to grab a quick lunch.
Tegelberg
We had one more activity planned for the day, taking an aerial cable car (hung from a cable like a gondola but only one car on the cable) up Tegelberg. Having done a bunch of walking already, we tried to see when the bus was going to go. It looked like it would be a wait of well over an hour. A quick stop at the Tourist Information center confirmed that; the woman flatly said we should just walk. Melody asked about walking down, but she tried to discourage us, saying it would be on the order of hours to make it down.
We headed out, backtracking some of our route from the Pöllat Gorge to Hohenschwangau, then continued on to Tegelbergbaum to catch the cable car. The route took us through several fields of cows.
At the ticket counter, we asked about Füssen cards, and she said that it would give us a €1 discount on one ticket, so that was something. There weren't many people, so we boarded and soon were on our way up.
The ride gave us a great view of the valley, and we got another good look at Neuschwanstein; it still looked large and majestic, even from that distance and height.
As we got to the top, we got out and got our bearings. We wanted to walk around at least a little bit, and settled on what looked like the most popular hike, to a location called Branderschrofenschulte; we could have doubled the distance by going to the peak, Königsrunde, but we figured we would have had enough of walking, and it seemed pretty narrow and potentially slick.
Up we went, and while it wasn't as steep as the trail to Mary's Bridge, it was another workout, about 250 feet of gain in about 15 minutes.
We felt pretty done for the day, so we got in line for the ride down, had a bit of a wait for the bus, and went back to Füssen. On the way back to the room, we picked up some gelato. After dropping off our bags, we went to a Chinese restaurant, did a little more shopping for snacks on the train, and called it a night.
