The next day we head out to the Neuschwanstein Castle tour - nearly two hours out to Fussen, the town at the bottom of the mountain, but I make friends with an Australian girl and that makes the time pass quicker. On the way, we learn all about "Mad" Kind Ludwig and the building of all his castles (which I must now go back and see immediately).
When we get there, we grab some lunch at one of the cafes and take it to go as we hike up the mountain. First we stop at the lake, where a whole family of swans is clustered around people giving them food. Apparently Kind Ludwig looooved swans. I can totally relate.
The climb up the mountain was a bit of a strainer - took almost 25 minutes, but the view at the top from the bridge was amaaaaaazing. Pictures are forthcoming. The walk to the castle from here was easy. A few people elect not to pay for the tour inside the castle - it's supposed to be dull cause the guides are all bored with it, but hell with that. I came all the way out here, I am going in.
Walking through the gate is like walking into a giant, giant version of the Disneyland castle. It looks exactly like that, but real. It's so well kept and there are people everywhere, but they thin out as tours come and go.
We get into the castle (this is not for people who can't do stairs, because you have to climb up so many freakin' spiral staircases to get anywhere) and start in the throne room. It is totally like stepping inside Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Everything looks new and it's sooo colorful and well preserved - King Ludwig spent so much money building his castles (the only one ever actually finished is one called Linderhof) that the Bavarian government had no choice but to open it as a museum only 6 weeks after his death. They've kept it up pretty well since then.
Every room is amazing and decorated with murals of fairy tales and arthurian legends and tons and tons of swans. Oh, and there's a cave. Randomly, just an artificial cave off his bedroom. I have no idea why.
The tour was brief because there aren't a lot of rooms to go into - like I said, it wasn't ever finished, and construction stopped as soon as he died - but it was awesome nonetheless. I defeinitely need to come back and see his other castle - Hohenshwangau, which we didn't have time to go into. Neushcwanstein is the big deal, anyways.
I get home in time to join Skip on the Beer Challenge, which is chock-a-block full of American frat boys. But we've already paid so we plod on. We try to make friends - it's what you're supposed to do in these situations - but we end up with a bunch of Texans. Not even very good Texans. Half of their group is boisterous and running all over the place, but we get the sad, melancholy Texans. We try to draw them out by talking about Europe, but all they can do is freakin' complain. "Italy was stupid. I didn't like it much. And the food is so tiny. The pasta dishes are so expensive and tiny and not that good. I mean, it's not even as good as what we can get at Olive Garden. I mean, I love Olive Garden!" Wow. We ditched them pretty quick.
We wander through a beer museum, sipping different kinds of beer as we go. So far we've only been given two of Munich's beers and I'm pretty annoyed. I though this would be trying the different Munich beers - 6 in total. Apparently not. It's just those two and the different variations they have. We try the one the pope likes to get shipped to him every month. It was okay, but beer isn't my thing so that might as well be a ringing endorsement. We reach a beirgarten near our hostel and I ditch out, leaving Skip with some Australians who seem fun enough. I go back to pack cause we're moving on to Verona the next day and the beer is just giving me a headache.
I find Skip much later (luckily the tour ended at our hostel) and get him into bed. To Verona tomorrow!
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