We headed to the train station and ended up on an earlier train to Munich. We had to go to Munich to connect to Fussen. This was the first train ride that Nancy stayed awake through. We had a few minutes in Munich so we booked our hotel for the next night on our return from Fussen. Hopped back on a train and headed down to the end of the Romantic Road. The Romantic Road runs north-south through western Bavaria from Wurzburg to Fussen close to the Austrian border. We could hear that the hills were alive as they called out to us.

Fussen is the last stop and a small quaint town between to Alpine peaks. This is the home of Ludwig’s 2 palaces; Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwanstein…say that 3 times fast. We landed about 4PM and went to the handy tourist office to get accommodations. The girl was not too helpful but printed a list of accommodations gave us a map and said good luck. I asked her if she would make the arrangements and she said no you had to do that yourself. We asked if there was any entertainment that night and she laughed and we knew we were not getting anymore help here. So we roamed the streets and found a place to stay the lady was very nice the room clean.

We relaxed, warmed up, and headed out on the town…we window shopped the closed stores and found an Italian restaurant. Had supper and went back to the hotel for the night. Got up bright and early and had breakfast of the German continental style …hard boiled eggs, brown bread, ham, cheese, liver, bologna, salami, muesli, juice, tea and coffee. I had gotten use to a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast. This usually turned out to be the meal that carried us to supper. We asked if we could leave our bags and the Fräulein agreed and we would pick them up at 2 before we caught the train back to Munich.

We caught the bus to the tourist information for the palaces and purchased our tickets for the 2 tours in English. We walked up a windy road that leads to Schloss Hohenschwanstein to start the first tour at 10AM. The view was breath-taking, the air crisp and clean, and the detail on the buildings amazing.

There is no one to greet you as you enter the turnstile under your tour number, a very effective way of managing a crowd. We enter the palace and are handed an audio set for the guided tour, each persons headset was in their chosen langauge. About 10 other people entered and we started to learn about the home of Maximillian II and Princess Marie of Prussia.

This sunset yellow palace was built by Schwangua knights during the 12th century and fell into ruin until Max reconstructed in 1830 in Neo-Gothis style. This was the summer and hunting residence of the family. The palace definitely felt lived in and was the childhood home of Ludwig II and his brother Otto.

King Maximilian died in 1864 and his son Ludwig succeeded to the throne, moving into his father's room in the castle. As Ludwig never married, his mother Marie was able to continue living on her floor. King Ludwig enjoyed living in Hohenschwangau, especially after 1869 when the building of his own castle, Neuschwanstein, began only a stone's throw from his parental home. His bedroom contained a telescope so he could watch the progress.
In 1912 Hohenschwangau was opened as a museum to the public.

We then descended and climbed to the top of Neuschwanstein, Fussen was much chillier than the rest of Germany but still no snow. People trudged up the hill because the mini busses were not working that day because of the weather. That also meant that certain roads were closed and the perfect view of the palace was not attainable.

Construction of Neuschwanstein was started by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, also known as "Mad King Ludwig". It was named after the Swan Knight, Lohengrin, of Wagner's opera of the same name, and was designed by Christian Jank. Of interest is that Jank was not an architect but a scenery designer at the Court Theater in Munich. From his drawings, architectural plans were then produced. There are many references to the Swan Knight in tapestries, paintings, door handles, linens, etc…





Ludwig was removed from power before the castle was completed. He was committed to an insane asylum so his uncle could assume the throne. Soon after he was found dead in Lake Starnberg, where he and his doctor had taken a walk. Ludwig idolized Wagner and the palace was dedicated to him. Many tapestries and paintings depict scenes from the operas of Richard Wagner, a reflection of Ludwig's love for his work. However, many of the interior rooms remain undecorated; only 14 rooms were finished before Ludwig's death. The castle was opened to the public in 1886 to raise the needed funds to complete the palace.

This palace was used in the making of Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang and Disney modeled Sleeping Beauty’s castle after this one.

We walked back down the hill and grabbed some hot cocoa and cheesecake and waited for the bus back to town. Picked up our bags, grabbed a gyro, and headed to the train station. Next stop, Munich at 6PM.