Neuschwanstein, Germany

 Neuschwanstein Strasse

You can either walk up the hill, or you can ride a horse drawn carraige - either way you are going to get some incredible views of the castle, the valley below as well as the forest.

This picture was taken on the hiking trails east of the Castle, a heavily forested area with occasional glimpses of the castle.

WARNING: The walk from the ticketing center to the castle, is approximately 1.5 kilometers up a steep hill. On a hot summer day, this can turn into a strenuous walk, more so if you did not bring water with you. There are numerous shady spots to cool off, and if it is not hot this is a spectacular walk through a heavily wooded area.

 Castle Entrance Gate Rear View

As far as I am aware, this is the only public entrance to the castle, through the gate and wait in the courtyard for your entrance to be granted.

Entrance is allowed only via your ticket, which is date & time marked - in other words - you cannot enter until your date & time is called. This is why this area appears to be lightly populated, everyone who was waiting had just gone inside the castle.

 Upper Courtyard Level

The most striking structure of the upper court level is the so-called Rectangular Tower. Like most of the court buildings, it mostly serves a decorative purpose as part of the ensemble. The northern end of the upper courtyard is defined by the so-called Knights' House (right side of image). The three-storey building is connected to the Rectangular Tower and the Gatehouse by means of a continuous gallery fashioned with a blind arcade.

 Neuschwanstein East Side

As you walk about on the trails near the castle, you can see this end of the building which is not quite visible from the valley or from the front side.

 Neuschwanstein West Side

This was taken as our walk up the Neuschwanstein Strasse was completed, looking east along the steep sides of the castle.

 Neuschwanstein East Side from the Trail

It is easy to see that this picture was taken as we ascended the hiking trail on our way to Marienbrücke, the castle views get better & better from this area.

The area behind the castle provides a very nice hiking path, through a beautiful forest area as it heads uphill. The views of the castle from this area are fantastic!

 Neuschwanstein Castle Inner Courtyard

This image is from the Neuschwanstein Castle inner courtyard, looking towards the main residence building.

At the time of it's construction, the Schloss Neuschwanstein was called the New Hohenschwangau Castle. After the death of King Ludwig II, the castle was renamed the Schloss Neuschwanstein, which meant the “New Swan Stone Castle”. This was a reference to the castle of the Swan Knight Lohengrin in an opera of the same name by Wagner.

 Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge)

Here is a great view of the Castle from the famous Marienbrücke (Mary's bridge) built to cross the Pöllat Gorge by King Maximilian II in 1845. We were perhaps 500 or more feet above the castle. The hiking path extends beyond the bridge and provides great views of the castle. Looks like a fairy tale kind of building doesn't it? King Ludwig, who designed it and had it built, was far more interested in being an architect, than he was having to be the King of Bavaria.

Since we had been inside the Castle before, and because the crowds were such that all tickets for that day were sold out, we decided to hike up behind the Castle, to see it from above.

Click here to view a Google Map of where the Pöllat Gorge is located in relation to the castle.

 Below Mary's Bridge

Here is a great view of the Castle from below the famous Mary's bridge, in the Pöllat gorge. The hiking trails extend into the gorge if you are interested in this kind of view.

NOTE: Image is the property of Robert Böck via Wikimedia Commons and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany.

 Posing on Mary's Bridge

It was a bit difficult to get a picture while standing on this bridge, due to the large number of tourists walking to & fro, but eventually Jeremy was able to take this great picture of us - and oh yeah - with the Castle in the background!

The bridge is an easy walk from the castle, located north of the Castle and above it, click here to view a Google Map of the route.

 Hohenschwangau Castle

This is King Ludwig's father's castle (Hohenschwangau Castle), and also where Ludwig was born and grew up.

Hohenschwangau Village is on the left, Schloss Hohenschwangau on right, as seen from Neuschwanstein Castle. The two castles are only 2.2 kilometers apart, click here to view a Google Map of the route..

 Hot Day Rest Break

This picture was included to give you a bit of an idea of how hot it was, because on our way back down the hiking trail from Neuschwanstein, we had to stop and get ourselves a cold drink!

If I remember correctly, something had just flown over this area, and I was trying to get a better view of it.

 Neuschwanstein Castle: Our Last View

This was our final view of Neuschwanstein Castle, as we walked through the little village at the bottom of the hiking trail. As you can see, there were a lot of tourists there that day, which is typical of summer days in Bavaria. Gives you an idea of how steep that mountain is behind the castle, that is where we hiked up, to get that beautiful view of the castle.

Once we got out of the trees that lined the hiking trail, we were back in the direct sun light, and it was a scorcher that day. Damn good thing our rental car had A/C !