Neuschwanstein, et fin.

We met our apartment host, Sandra, for tea last night at the local vegan cafe near her apartment, Cafe Kopfeck. We intended to order dinner there as well, but we could only find a seat outside, it was freezing cold, and our waitress wasn't really interested in us. She brought us our drinks readily enough, but refused to make eye contact or otherwise acknowledge that we might be interested in food or another round of drinks at the very least. Allen had to track her down to ask for the check, but when she still hadn't appeared with it 15 minutes later - she was busy sitting at a table nearby smoking a cigarette - we left the approximate amount of money on the table and left. We were briefly tempted to just walk away, but we would have felt bad about it afterwards. Chalk it up to good karma. It's the only time we've gotten downright bad service this trip, so all in all it's been pretty good.

You have to get up pret-ty early in the morning to go to Neuschwanstein. We hustled out of the apartment to catch our bus at 8am. The tour bus left from Hauptbahnhof at 8:30. It was a double decker tour bus and we luckily found seats on the top deck. The day was cold (40 degrees when we set out), and foggy. There were times driving through the mountains that you couldn't see anything out the windows at all. It gave the impression of driving up the mountain and through the clouds.

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Our first stop was Linderhof Castle, about an hour and a half south of Munich. This was Ludwig's first "fairy tale castle" - he had it built when he was 24, according to our tour guide. The castle is small, but the grounds are vast and beautiful.

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(The photo isn't blurry. That's how foggy is was all day.)

The inside of the castle is almost sensory overload with the French roccocco design. Gold leaf, mirrors, crystal and porcelain chandeliers, and paintings cover literally every surface. The building itself is fairly small - well, small for royal standards - and extremely richly decorated. The grounds outside have manicured gardens and streams and fountains. There is also a grotto that the king had built to be his private opera house. We couldn't go in, though. We had only a short time in Linderhof before we swept off to the next stop in our journey.

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Next up was Oberammergau, a little Alpine village. We had only 30 minutes to take in the small central square and gift shop. There was some kind of bike race going on today, so much of the center of town was closed to foot traffic. The little shop was beautiful, and given the temperatures outside, combined with the Alpine style of the town and the shop, it almost felt like Christmas. I bought two little incense smokers, similar to some that my grandparents sent to the family when they lived in Zweibrucken years ago. The ones I bought are much smaller, but adorable, nonetheless. If we had more time, I might have gotten an Advent calender too. They had several versions that were very sweet.

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Finally, we made our way through the fog to Neuschwanstein. The bus dropped us off next to the ticket shop at the base of the mountain. We walked up throught the building dotting the road and found a place to grab a quick lunch before the trek up the mountain for our tour. Our lunch cafe was in the Hotel Lisl, and we were joined at the table by a trio of young Germans. Seating in Germany is very informal - you sit wherever there is room - and it's such a friendly way to enjoy a meal. We ordered krautschupfnudel mit salate - potato noodles with sauerkraut and a salad and a beer each (of course!). No photos of the food, though. We were too hungry to bother!

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I'm not ashamed to say we wolfed that meal down. After our brief repast, we faced the long trek up to the castle itself. Fortunately, at the bottom, I didn't realize just *how* long this trek was, otherwise I might have wimped out! I remembered that my parents said they drove up, but the reality of the statement didn't sink in until my knees wwere aching halfway up the mountain. I have read that it's a 25 minute uphill climb, but that is such a dry description for what is actually a torturous forced march. I'm being a bit melodramatic, I realize, but seriously! That climb was *so* hard! It's a mile up the mountain! You have to share the road with tourists walking down, buses driving up and horse-drawn carriages ferrying people up and down. On a clear day, I gather that you can see the castle as you approach, but the whole mountain was shrouded in mist, so we saw nothing but white a ghostly outlines.

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It was still kind of magical to look up and suddenly realize you can see the outline of a turret in the mist. Neuschwanstein is an impressive bit of architecture.

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It was under construction for 17 years, and all work on the building stopped when Ludwig drowned in 1886. The entire second floor is bare, for example. It was intended to be a Moorish style hall with guest rooms, but was never completed. The first floor are servants quarters and the third floor are the king's apartments. The castle was dedicated by Ludwig to Richard Wagner, and was intended to be a physical representation of Wagner's musical compositions and operas. The bedroom is decorated with scenes depicting the tale of Tristan and Isolde, for example. Apparently, the king only lived in Neuschwanstein for half a year, and only got to use his personal (and ornately carved) bedroom for 10 days before he was deposed (by reason of insanity) and died. It seems like such a shame that he bankrupted himself for something so beautiful and never really got to enjoy it. But that seemed to be the theme of Ludwig's life, according to the tour guides today - a man who resented his status as a figurehead and longed to rule as a powerful king from the past. Since he couldn't, he built "fairy tale" castles where he could pretend.

The climb down the hill was just as unforgiving as the climb up, but mercifully, we discovered a "short cut". We also discovered the several fun food and drink stalls that we missed in the hustle up the mountain. There was a cafe that served gluhwein (hot, mulled wine), and a stand that sold apple pretzels - pretzels with apple chunks baked in! Sadly, they were out of apple pretzels, and the gluhwein did not come in "to go" cups. ::Sigh:: Next time...

The short cut was considerably steeper than the regular route, but got us to the bottom faster. We did have a few moments of fear as we recalled taking a similar "short cut" in Japan while touring the torii gates at Fushimi Inari... That "short cut" lead us down the other side of the mountain, literally miles from where we started. Thankfully, this short cut dumped us out in the parking lot a few short (and flat) blocks to our tour bus. By the time we boarded the bus, the sun had finally come out and burned off the fog... Just in time for us to leave. We got some impressive photos of Neuschwanstein, finally... Out the window of the bus.

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Not ideal, but at least we could appreciate the way the castle sits above the valley floor. It's just magic the way you can look up at a mouontain and see a huge, beautiful castle sitting on an outcropping, watching over the valley below. The drive back through the Alps and the southern part of Bavaria was breathtaking, aided by the fact that we could now fully appreciate our surroundings, given that the fog had finally disappeared. This part of Bavaria is rural and agricultural, from what we could see out the window of the bus. Idyllic. If we ever come back this way, I think we will definitely rent a car and spend more time in this area. We definitely regret not taking my parents advice to stay overnight in Fussen. It gives us a reason to come back, though!

Our time in Germany is almost complete. We have a few short hours left to have dinner and pack before we head to the airport in the morning for our long flight home. We have a layover in London, but not long enough to leave the airport. Maybe next time...! Auf wiedersehen!