26th Sept 2015
Castles, castles,
and more castles !
After our plan
yesterday to go up to see Neuschwanstein Castle, we got up in leisurely fashion
– It was only 40 kms to the castle after all, and it had been pretty chilly
last night – it was 5 deg C when we went to bed, and 4 when I woke up at 7 am,
so it must have dropped down even further during the night. I know my feet were chilly for the first time
in a long time – Nothing that a good pair of socks couldn’t fix though ! But when we hit the road, we did change plans
slightly, deciding to get straight on over to the castle and not spend any time
in Seefeld this morning. We could always
come back this way later if we wanted.
From Seefeld we
dropped down on the freeway for a short distance, then got off in Telfs and
spent the rest of the day winding along on a country road through the Tyrol –
Albeit a very busy road ! The scenery
was beautiful, and very typical of the region.
We wound up a mountain pass through little villages with their houses
with painted facades, wooden verandahs and red geraniums in their window boxes
– It has been a long time since I was in this part of the world, and it was
great to see it all again. It brought
back many memories of ski trips to Galtur (just 60 kms away) when I was 8 (I
think), and later to this part of the world on a school trip when I was 17, in
1964.
We wound our way
over a small but steep pass outside Seefeld, then dropped into a beautiful
sunny and green valley, through to Nassereith, where we found fuel for 22
Eurocents cheaper a litre than on the freeway – That’s about Aus $ 0.35 a litre cheaper !! And we complain in Aus when the fuel price
varies just a few cents !! The
traffic was getting heavier and heavier – It was unbelievable how much traffic
there was on such a small windy mountain road.
And motor bikes ? Hundreds of
them out for a Saturday ride in the mountains in the sunshine. I guess bikers here will have to put their
bikes away for the winter soon, so they want to enjoy them while they can.
Then we started
to climb again on a switchback road, this time over the Fern Pass. The road condition was excellent, and if
there had been no traffic it would have been magical. As it was, we were stopping and starting a
bit, but it was still pretty good. Half
way up the Fern Pass, we came round a corner – And there was a castle right in
front of us ! Fernstein Castle, we
think. Obviously we were in the right area for castles today ! The road wound on, and climbed up over the
top of the pass at 1210 metres ASL, and then about 10 minutes later, we came
round another corner, and there was another castle ruin high on the hill above
us – This time Ehrenberg Castle. And
more surprisingly, we noticed a wire walkway WAY up above us, crossing the
entire valley, and people walking across it – mere pin pricks in the sky. People
were crossing from one side of the valley to the other to get to the castle –
And we hadn’t even seen any signs !!
Might have to visit this one on the way back !
From Ehrenberg
castle it was only about a further 20 minutes till we got close to Fussen, and
then we came round a corner and there were two castles – One on each side of
the valley. We first saw the less
spectacular Schloss Hohenschwangau, and then we looked to our left and saw the
dramatic Schloss Neuschwanstein, high up on a hill above us. This is the one that many people know from
photos and tourist books – Built by King Ludwig II in 1869 – He actually
demolished the ruins of a castle built in about 1147 in order to build this one
!! Anyway, we parked our car in car
park D (A,B, and C were full), and the place was packed with coaches and tours
and people. After having some lunch at
the car. We headed up to buy tickets for the castle – It was now 2 pm. At the ticket office we found that the tours
in the castle were fully booked until 6 pm – And shortly after that, they
closed the ticket office for the day as all tours were full. This is the end of September, and tourist
places have been shutting behind us as we headed south. But not here in Bavaria (for we did just
cross back over the border into Germany again this morning !). Bavaria is
packed !! We later found out that additionally
Sept and Oct are big hiking times in Bavaria, after all the summer tourists
have left !! Oh well, change of plans.
We thought about
it, found there was a camp site nearby, and decided to go there overnight and
then get up early in the morning and be back at Schloss Neuschwanstein by 8
am. The tour buses won’t be there by
then, and everyone assured us we would have no problem getting in then. We walked up the steep hill to Schloss
Hohenschwangau and looked around the gardens.
We didn’t feel like going in – Tours were not quite as busy as the other
Schloss, but only by a whisker ! So a
quick walk round, then back down the hill to the car park, and we set off to
find the camp site.
Shock horror
there too – The camp site was packed !
There are a lot of sites filled with permanents – ie people who leave
their vans here all year and just come for weekends or whenever. But even so, there were still a lot of
overnighters, and we were put in an over flow area where we were lined up a bit
like sardines in a can ! But we are only
here over night, and will be leaving early, so no big drama – It is all about
the castle today. We did a quick shop
for groceries, met Roman and his wife who are going to S America next year in a
Toyota so they wanted to pick our brains for a while, and then went out to the
camp site and squeezed in !! All good –
Off to the Schloss early tomorrow morning !
Other photos are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0368SeefeldToNeuschwanstein?authkey=Gv1sRgCKH0p9GWo6K6kAE
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