The Stephen's Story: Europe Day 8: Neuschwanstein Castle

Here's the thing, a long time ago I saw a picture of Neuschwanstein Castle and that one picture is what planned our trip. I planned the entire trip around this ONE day. To say my expectations were high would be an understatement. I prayed, literally prayed, for pretty weather on this one day. The weather had been PERFECT on our trip (which apparently in this region isn't very common?) so I was worried it was setting it up to rain the entire time on our trip to THE CASTLE! Fortunately we had clear gorgeous skies and the entire day blew my expectations out of the water! We took a train ride 2 hours southeast of Munich into the foothills of the Alps to get to the town of Hohenschwangau, Germany. The town was picturesque! as we were pulling up to the town I caught my first glimpse of the castle, I was SO excited! We grabbed a quick lunch, bought our tickets to tour the castle, and went to figure out how to get up to the castle. You had three options: walks 30 min up a steep hill, ride a bus, or take a horse drawn carriage. We opted for the carriage. What more could a girl ask for?! My excitement continues to build! We got up tot he castle and had to wait for our tour time to start. A small bit of history, the Neuschwanstein Castle was built in 1892 by King Ludwig as a place of personal refuge. At the time of his death only 17 of the 60 rooms were finished, and the King only lived there for (I think) 170 days. They told us the exact numbers on the tour but I can't totally remember. It wasn't long after his death that the castle was opened up for tourists to tour.

Back to our tour, we waited and took approximately 39277899 pictures, then went on our tour! We were in the back because of the kids so I couldn't hear everything, but we were able to see all 17 rooms that had been finished. It was really neat. After the tour we made the 20 minute hike up the hill to Mary's Bridge to get the BEST views of the castle! The bridge itself was terrifying and we were probably stupid to take the kids on it but oh well! We all made it! With some awesome pictures to show for it!

We walked back down to the town and naturally went to the towns biergarten for drink and to just take it all in! From our table we had the perfect view of the castle and I was pinching myself because I couldn't believe that I was really there! Just as we were about to leave we wandered around the corner to this lake that was one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. The water was crystal clear and the background was perfect. So to basically sum up this day, it was perfect! I mean, just perfect. We have been so blessed to travel through Europe and see so many amazing things, but this day rates high up there on my list. I told Bryan I wanted to come to see what it looks like in the winter and fall now :)