On my holiday in Bavaria, I was keen to tour all of King Ludwig II’s fantastical castles and palaces.
King Ludwig II was never meant to be king of Bavaria. His older brother, Otto was supposed to be king. Otto was declared insane. As King Ludwig II was known as Mad King Ludwig, it does make you wonder what his brother was like!
The first day I went to Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein is in the Bavarian Alps and is the most famous of King Ludwig II’s castles. Most people have seen photographs of the castle perched on a cliff top with the mountains of the Bavarian Alps behind it. In my opinion, Neuschwanstein has the most picturesque setting of any castle in the world.
I had bought a 14 day pass which was valid for entry into most of the castles and palaces in the area and was much cheaper than buying individual tickets for each place.
You have to walk up the hill to get to the castle and I had fun avoiding the horses as people who can’t manage the walk up the hill have the option of a horse drawn carriage ride. I’m horribly allergic to horses, so in some places, avoiding them can be a challenge. There is also a minibus, but it wasn’t running that day. I would have walked anyway; I enjoy walking and like to get the exercise.
I had plenty of time before the guided tour, so I walked to the Marienbrücke, the bridge over the Pollat Gorge named after King Ludwig II’s mother, Queen Marie of Prussia, that everyone heads to for a fabulous view of the castle where everyone takes a photograph, including me! The walk was lovely. With more time I would have gone further up the mountain, but I didn’t want to attempt a steep trail and then have to rush coming down and possibly break my neck to get to the tour on time or alternatively miss the tour, especially as it was quite busy that day. So I went back to the bridge and enjoyed the view in the sunshine.
The guided tour around the castle was interesting, but because Neuschwanstein is very popular, they cram a lot of people onto the tour, so it’s crowded, which made it difficult to see the rooms very well and you inevitably have the people who bring along noisy children. Neuschwanstein seemed to be particularly bad for this; I was struggling to hear what the guide was saying because of both the large number of people in the group and various children making a racket in the background.
Neuschwanstein was never finished. King Ludwig II had ambitious plans, but even though he had a colossal royal fortune, he blew it all constructing his castles and palaces and amassed huge debts in the process. He didn’t complete one castle and then start another, he had them built simultaneously and only the smallest of his palaces, Linderhof, was completed.
Neuschwanstein was supposed to have had over 200 rooms, but in fact, less than 20 were finished because the money ran out.
I had watched a Dan Cruikshank documentary on BBC4 about the castles of King Ludwig II a couple of years before and remembered the throne room in Neuschwanstein from that. It’s an over the top room, with bright colours, a starry ceiling and a mosaic floor with pictorial representations of animals. The thing that is missing from the room is a throne. King Ludwig II died before the throne was made.
When I say he died, his death is shrouded in mystery, no one knows for sure what happened to him, whether he was murdered or committed suicide. It’s a mystery that has kept people wondering for decades. It’s something that probably no one will ever have the answer to. However, the mystery surrounding King Ludwig II and his suspicious death just add to the enduring fascination with this eccentric king who lived in a permanent dream world. King Ludwig himself proclaimed: “I want to remain an eternal mystery to myself and others”.
Many of the rooms in Neuschwanstein are decorated as an homage to the heroes portrayed in the operas of Richard Wagner, many of which feature heavily in the castle’s interior. King Ludwig II was a huge fan of Wagner operas, he particularly identified with Lohengrin, the Swan Knight.
In Neuschwanstein scenes from Lohengrin are found in the salon, scenes from Tannhäuser are depicted in the study and the bedroom features murals depicting scenes from Tristan and Isolde.
The Singers’ Hall, along with the Throne Room was one the most important rooms in the castle and one of King Ludwig’s favourite projects at Neuschwanstein. This is the largest room in the castle and is a monument to the Germanic knights and legends of Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Parzival, but it was never used for entertaining. King Ludwig II was a loner who didn’t like company, he preferred to enjoy his castle in solitude.
I loved Neuschwanstein, but I did find the interior a little dark and gloomy. I don’t think you should miss seeing inside Neuschwanstein, but it’s true what people say, it does look better from the outside than the inside. For me, this was the least impressive interior of the palaces I visited.
When I’d walked to the Marienbrücke before the tour I noticed a path back down to the town through the forest on my way there. I decided that was the way I was going back to town. So after my guided tour of the castle I walked 10 minutes uphill to go back downhill so I could take the forest path instead of the roadway. Forest walks are one of my holiday pleasures.
Very close to Neuschwanstein is the smaller castle of Hohenschwangau. I also did a guided tour around this castle, which was less interesting and much smaller, but still worth the visit. Since I was there I was going to complete the castles associated with King Ludwig II and this was the castle where he grew up. The castle was built by King Ludwig II’s father, Maximilian II, who certainly didn’t have the architectural flair of his son. It was nowhere near as impressive as any of King Ludwig II’s castles. But Maximilian probably didn’t spend the colossal amounts of money building his castle as King Ludwig did.
One place that I did make a point of going into when I was at Hohenschwangau, was the chapel by the castle. It was very plain inside, but all you needed to do was look out of the window and you could see the Bavarian Alps. Like the chapel on Lake Tekapo in New Zealand, no stained glass window required, the view is all that is needed.
By the time I’d been in both castles, it was too late to venture to another of King Ludwig’s palaces, so I went a few miles down the road and went on the cable car up the Tegelberg for more views of the Bavarian Alps.
As you’re going up in the cable car you can see Neuschwanstein and on a reasonably clear day like this, from the top you can see the Zugspitze in the distance, which is the highest mountain in Germany.
I saw some paragliders at the top of Tegelberg so watched them with interest as they took off, as it was my paragliding flight the next day, although I was going from a different location. I hoped my paraglide pilot was a bit more handy than the ones I saw taking off Tegelberg, it took some of them 3 attempts to get in the air! I did subsequently discover it is a difficult location to take off from.
It was the end of the day and I’d seen the most iconic of Mad King Ludwig II’s fantastical castles, his childhood home and the highest mountain in Germany. It had been a good day.
I travelled in Bavaria during the second week of May in 2015.
You cannot take photographs inside Neuschwanstein, the best way to see the interior is to take a virtual tour on the official website which features photographs of each room on the tour.
General information, including admission prices, can be found on the official castle website.
I bought a 14 day pass which was valid for a large number of castles and palaces throughout Bavaria and cost 24 Euros. This leaflet details all attractions covered by the 14 day pass. Hohenschwangau is the only palace I visited that is not covered in this pass.
You can only visit Neuschwanstein as part of a guided tour. In 2018 tickets for a guided tour of Neuschwanstein cost 13 Euros per person.
Combination tickets for entry to Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee cost 26 Euros per person.
A combination ticket for Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau costs 25 Euros per person.
Neuschwanstein Castle is located 120km from Munich which is an approximate 2 hour drive from the city.
Hohenschwangau Castle is located a short walk from Neuschwanstein Castle. It is possible to visit both castles in the same day. Entry with a guided tour costs 13 Euros per person. Further details can be found on Hohenschwangau website.
Tegelberg Cable Car is a 5 minute drive from the parking area for Neuschwanstein Castle. A round trip ticket costs 20.60 Euros.
I stayed at Hotel Kriemhild close to the Hirschgarten in Munich
I flew to Munich direct from Birmingham Airport with Lufthansa
Read further instalments about my tours of King Ludwig II’s fantasy castles and palaces.
Linderhof Palace
Palace of Herrenchiemsee
I also visited the Bavarian palaces in Munich.
Schloss Nymphenburg and the Munich Residenz
Read about my other adventures on my trip to Bavaria and Austria.
Paragliding in the Bavarian Alps
Surreal Night at the Rattlesnake Saloon
Längenfeld Aqua Dome Spa
I love visiting castles and palaces. Read about other castles I’ve visited around the world.
Kronborg – A Visit to Hamlet’s Castle
