Visiting Castle Neuschwanstein

We had a friend from college visit this past weekend and one of sights he wanted to see was Castle Neuschwanstein. It was on our list as well, so we decided we'd make the trip out to see it on Saturday. We lucked out, because the weather was gorgeous, albeit a bit colder in the mountains than maybe we anticipated. Rookie mistakes!

Castle Neuschwanstein is located in the pre-alps, very close to the Austrian border. Back in the day, King Ludwig II had an obsession with building castles. He built Neuschwanstein (1869-1886), Linderhof (1874-1878), and Herrenchiemsee (1878-1886) as his "southern" homes. Castle Neuschwanstein is located just up the mountain from Castle Hohenschwangau, which was the home he built for his mother.

Neuschwanstein is famous for inspiring the Disney Cinderella castle, and for being one of the largest and most lavish castles in Germany. They give "tours" which are of about only 5 rooms in the castle. You can walk around the castle grounds for free, but it is very crowded. We went on a cold day in the off season and we still couldn't get a tour earlier than 2 hours after we arrived, because there were so many people!

It's a beautiful sight to behold as you arrive by bus to the town, and even more beautiful a sight as you hike the 40 minute hike to the castle, or take the extra 20 minutes to walk to Maria's Bridge behind the castle, and take in the view from there. Here are a few of the best views, and here is the link to the Google album with all the pictures!

The view from the train as you arrive

Arriving in town, this is the first sight of the castle 

The next thing you'll see as you hike up the hill toward the castle is the other castle!
This is Castle Hohenschwangau, the "in law suite" as we called it. 

As you keep hiking you come across this view and know you're about halfway there.

After you get to the castle, you can take an extra walk to the Marienbrucken, Maria's Bridge, and this is a sight you'll see as you take that walk. There is Hohenschwangau, nestled in between two gorgeous lakes and a few town buildings. 

The same view, just zoomed out. You can see more of the pre-Alps and more of Bavaria.

Looking down from Maria's Bridge. There's a beautiful pool with a waterfall, and on
the other side of the bridge is another pool with a smaller waterfall.

The best view of Neuschwanstein is from Maria's Bridge.
And due to the weird sunlight that day, the best view was also in black and white! 

Joe doing "the point" (but it also looks like he is trying to touch the top of the castle) 

A courtyard are in the Castle grounds. 

More from the Christmas markets

I finally made it out to the markets with my nice camera, during a bright, sunny day, to get some pictures for you all! We had a friend come to visit this past weekend, and on Friday he got straight off the plane and we got coffee and then set out to see as many markets as possible. There area quite a large number of them, even in small places in the city, but they are very neat. They all generally sell similar things, but the atmospheres can be pretty different. Here are some of Sarah's favorites, since she has been to more than Joe. As always, here's the link to the Google album with more pictures. (Posting too many pictures on Blogger can be a pain when you try to load it, so we post the Google album so that you can see all of the pictures in an easier format!)

First market is the market at the Wittlesbacherplatz. Every year this is the "Medieval Market" and their setup and
products reflect a Medieval theme. 

Huge tower at the front! This way you know at first glance where to get your Glühwein!

Next up is the Christmas Village at the Munich Residenz! This is the royal home we toured back in October.
This courtyard is transformed into a family friendly Christmas market with animated woodland creatures
and traditional foods. 

A very traditional Bavarian food stall. 

It's almost impossible to get a photo at the most visited market, the one at Marienplatz. It's ALWAYS packed, no matter the time of day (this was at 10am!) In the picture you can see the Glockenspiel as well. 

Every year the biggest and flashiest market is at Tollwood, which is held on the Oktoberfest grounds. Tollwood is
market at the front entrance by this massive Christmas tree made of bikes! At night, it lights up as well, and
they even bring out stationary bikes you can ride to make it shine brighter/light up different lights. 

The booths at Tollwood are big, showy, and entertaining. They sell the largest variety of food and drinks of any market. 

More decorations! Tollwood is a very exciting place to walk around. 

Tollwood also has the largest selection of merchandise! There is a giant tent of only vendors selling handmade goods. Some are very creative, like vinyl records turned into entire dining sets of dishes, while others are more traditional, like these lanterns. 

A Trip to Blutenburg and Some Christmas Spirit

We've been exploring some more Christmas markets! And by we, we mean mostly Sarah, with more of the free time to do so. She's met up with new people to tour around a few of the markets. Joe finally got to experience a small Christmas market this weekend, though, and it's safe to say he is eager to return for more glühwein and bratwursts Christmas cheer. It is really neat to walk through mini-stalls of handmade gifts, food, and decorations, all to celebrate the Christmas season.

Many booths sell gifts like candles and candle holders, artwork, sewing/knitting/quilting items, hand carved or potted figurines, ornaments, decorations, etc. Meanwhile, every market has food stalls that sell bratwurst of every kind, fries, and the bigger markets with seating will sell spaetzle, warm soups (mostly pumpkin), and other adventurous meals. You can also buy a variety of treats- chocolate covered fruits, traditional German cookies, sweet breads, stollens, and roasted and spiced nuts of every kind. We caved and tried a waffle on a stick at the market this weekend, because, well, it just looked good. And was easy to eat with gloves. And lastly, the tradition is to sip some warm glühwein while you walk around. This is basically warm, spiced wine, and each market sells it in their souvenir mugs. You do pay a deposit on the mug (just like you do for beer steins at beer gardens), but if you return the mugyou get the deposit back. Alternatively, you can keep it and it's like you've bought a great souvenir. For the "over-the-top" Christmas spirit, you can add rum or amaretto to your glühwein, or get a feuerzangenbowle, or "fire-tongs bowl" if you're feeling particularly festive.  Besides the cold temperatures, these markets are the definition of "warm and fuzzy holiday feelings."






And BRRR has it been cold here in the last week or so. Highs have been in the 30s, 40s on sunny days, and the lows have been in the teens and 20s. This weekend we braved the cold to go on a tour with the University Welcome Center where Joe is working. They do once a month outings to encourage interaction with other academics and visiting professors/post docs/etc. but also to get to know some of the culture around Munich and Bavaria. We went on a tour in October, missed the November tour, and this weekend went with the group to visit Blutenburg Castle. It's more of a "manor" than a "castle" but it keeps the name anyway. We had a rather long winded tour guide, so our 90 minutes of tour only got us a look at a statue outside, a visit to the International Youth Library (which has a fabulous history), and the church of the castle, which is one of the rare churches/historical buildings to have not been destroyed in the war. It is completely in tact, art, decor, and all, from the 1400's. Here are a few pictures of our time there, and a few Christmas market pictures. As usual, a full album of our tour can be found here!

The oldest and most intact Gothic-decorated church in Bavaria. Most churches were redecorated in the Rococo style or
later, but this one has been kept in it's original decor. 

On the left is the original flooring of the church- those stones and bricks are more than 600 years old!

On the right is a statue depicting the prince who build Blutenburg castle, and his forbidden lover, who then became his wife, but who was then convicted of witchcraft by his father so that he could marry a more suitable woman. Tough times for that guy, eh?

The International Youth Library has books for kids 0-teen years, and in over 30 languages. 

The International Youth Library houses a collection of original books
and memorial for Erich Kaestner, who was a well known children's
author before war started in the 1930's. His books were largely banned
by the Nazi party. The editions in the memorial are all first editions,
and published in other languages. He was one of the most popular
children's authors of his time and had his books translated into
dozens of other languages.