The Mad King Meets Disney World

Today, Mrs. Paige and I ventured to Neuschwanstein Castle. Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the three castles built by King Ludwig II. Ludwig II was absolutely obsessed with designing and re-designing the blueprints for his castles, and because of this, only a third of Neuschwanstein has actually been completed. In addition to this, Ludwig II tried to make a fantasy world for himself, creating a medieval style castle in the 19th century. His behavior and obsession with hiding in his castle earned him the nickname the “Mad King”. The Mad King was very reclusive, and therefore intentionally made it difficult for people to reach Neuschwanstein. Today, in 2017, we have learned the hard way that this claim is still very true.

Getting to Neuschwanstein was quite the task. The journey to the castle required three different trains and two bus rides. The train rides were absolutely beautiful, taking us through the mountainous region of Bavaria. The bus rides, however, were an entirely different story. Imagine 150 people crammed into one bus, only held up by each other’s bodies bumping into one another. This is exactly what happened…or is what it felt like, at least. On the bus ride up the mountain to the castle, we were packed so tightly into the bus that the fear of falling over was absent, because it was impossible to move at all. This, in addition to the bus going around 60 mph around the curves up the mountain, made for a ride more sinister than Disney World’s Tower of Terror. At only 1.80 €, I felt like the ticket for this ride was quite the steal! In reality, I understand why they do it. Busses can only go up and down the mountain in one direction, and Neuschwanstein has around 6,000 visitors per day during the summer. It is therefore crucial to get as many people to the top as quickly as possible.

Once we reached the top of the mountain, we had a gorgeous view of the castle from St. Mary’s Bridge. Once again, however, we were packed like sardines on this bridge, sometimes questioning how many people the bridge can actually hold. After a few quick pictures, we headed to the entrance. The entrance is a good half a mile walk from where the bus dropped us off; Ludwig II really won’t let us forget that he does not want us visiting his castle. Finally, having three train rides, two bus adventures, and a half a mile walk behind us, we reached the entrance of the castle. After a short 25-minute tour of the eccentric interior (remember, only 1/3 of the castle was ever completed), we bravely started the journey back down.