June 26th - Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein & Oberammergau

We left Rothenburg and headed to Schwangau to visit Schloss (Castle) Hohenschwangau & Schloss Neuschwanstein.  We were going to follow the Romantic Road but we lost the road signs and just followed our fearless gps.

We had purchased the Bavarian Castle pass in Wurzburg so it got us into Neuschwanstein for free but we purchased the Hohenschwagau ticket when we arrived.  The nice thing was that we were able to bypass the very long line for the Neuschwanstein tickets since there was no line for the Hohenschwagau tickets and I got them both from them.  I strongly suggest that if you know the day and approximate time you would arrive to get reservations ahead of time.  They do charge for that but your time not spent in line may be worth it.  When you are issued your ticket is good for an exact time and if you don't enter the gate within the few minute grace period you are out of luck,  If you are doing both castles they start you with the Hohenschwagau, which was the childhood home of King Ludwig II.  Then 2 hours later is your entrance time to Neushwanstein.

Well we walked up to Hohenschwagau.  It was freezing up there where the breeze was able to blow across the courtyard. Elaine was trying to warm her ears.


Again we were not able to take pictures inside.

The views of the hotels and restaurants below from the courtyard of Hohenschwangau.

As Ludwig and his brother got older they moved to a separate building of the castle, which is also where the kitchen was.  You don't tour this building except that they have a window for you to see into the kitchen and it also houses the gift shop.

The way you have to go back down is longer than the way up and takes a much more scenic route.

Maybe a little too long.

It dropped us down so that it was easy to find the bus that would take you up to the top of the hill that Neuschwanstein is on.  You can pay 1,80 for a one way ticket or 2,60 euro for a round trip ticket.  I would say get a one way ticket up on the bus.  if you have more than 20 minutes before your scheduled enter time and you can walk reasonably fast.  Go up to the bridge before going to the castle.  You can then either walk down after the tour or take the carriage ride down.  The walk back up to the bus is kind of brutal and it can take a long time for them to make the return trip because they wait until you are packed in like sardines before heading to the top.

The views while walking to the castle are beautiful with the lakes below and the alps in the background.  So far on this trip we have had cloudy and sometimes rainy weather so the pictures really look foggy.

I can not tell you how many pictures of the castle we took.  Around every turn you just got a little different view.

Entering the castle gates.  Also just so you know you can get all the way to this point and if you do not want to tour the castle all it will cost you is your parking.  You could walk up and down but be warned it is steep.  We saw a few hikers that were just hiking the area.



















Inside the courtyard area.

From the upper courtyard area with the entry gate wall behind Amanda.

The lower courtyard had a good view of  Mary's bridge.

Fred & Elaine found a seat in a doorway and tried to stay warm before our tour began.

They didn't have to worry about staying warm after the tour as they had to make the steep hike back up to catch the bus.









There is a sign post where the bus drop off and pick up that tells you where things are.  But if you are at this point you would not want to be heading to Hohenschwangau.  But we did head up to see Mary's Bridge.

It is a great location to get great photos of the castle.

This is my favorite picture of Neuschwanstein.

By the time we left the parking lot we were all starving since we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now 6:00 pm.  We wanted some fast food so we headed over to McDonalds.  Amanda wants the food to "get in my belly".

We decided to head to Oberammergau which is were every 10 years they do a huge production of the passion play with over 2000 of the local residents are in the cast.  The next time they will present the play is in 2020.  We stayed in the Hotel Gasthof zur Rose, which we had found in the Rick Steves' book.  I was very happy to find that they had room available since we were arriving without reservations.

We had a room for 3.

View out the window.  Their lower floor rooms were already taken.  They have a balcony off their rooms.  The rooms were comfortable and clean.  The most important to Amanda & Roger was that they had wifi.  The cost for one night including breakfast and all taxes was 90 euro.

Roger, Amanda & I headed out to window shop and explore the village at 8:45 pm.  We were amazed at all the wonderful wood carvings that the town had to offer.  This carving of the last supper was one of my favorites.  They had a lot of hand carved nativity scenes & of course crucifixes.