Three days in Bavaria: Füssen

Day 1, Munich

Day 2

I opened my eyes with a start. My phone showed 6.58 am, time to get up.

Füssen is the home base for visiting two castles that were built by the royal Bavarian family. After reading travel reports about people standing for hours in line to buy tickets to the castles I reserved mine online. Reservations are available for one or both castles and/or the museum. I opted to see the castles only. My first tour began at 10 am and the tickets had to be picked up from the ticket office no later than 8.50 am, i.e. 70 minutes before the tour. The second tour start time was 11.55 am. The duration of either tour is 40-50 minutes; both tours are with a guide. Taking photos during them is prohibited.

After an excellent breakfast at the hotel, I walked to the bus station. Buses 73 and 78 go to the castles; the ride takes about 10 minutes. The ticket office was empty. I don’t know if everyone reserved their tickets online or it was not a popular date and time. I got my tickets and walked up to Hohenschwangau castle. There was nothing to do around the castle apart from viewing it from the outside. The morning was cold and soggy after the night rain, the benches too wet to sit on them and everyone milled around waiting for their tour number to be displayed over the entrance.

At exactly 10 am I got inside with a small group of other tourists and the tour began. Hohenschwangau castle belonged to the royal Bavarian family for generations. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times, the last time by king Maximilian before his wedding to Princess Marie of Prussia. All walls are decorated with murals painted directly on the stucco. Many objects displayed in the rooms are gifts to the royal family; all of them are exquisitely beautiful.

Each room is equipped with a heater that servants could feed from a passage in the walls from a different area and room’s occupants were not disturbed. Maximilian and Marie kept separate bedrooms that were connected so they could easily visit each other. The ceiling in Maximilian’s bedroom is painted deep blue and studded with small lights that imitate stars. A bigger light is for the Moon. Its shape changes according to the Moon phases. That way Maximilian could imagine himself sleeping under the open sky.

Maximilian and Marie had two sons: Ludwig and Otto. At 24 Otto was diagnosed with a mental illness and had to be locked away. After Maximilian’s death, Ludwig became king of Bavaria. He was only 18 at that time. Tall and handsome, Ludwig attracted a lot of attention, but he was not a social person and tended to withdraw from public life. He got engaged to Duchess Sophie. The king was expected to produce an heir. Their wedding was postponed several times and eventually canceled. Ludwig never married and had no children. Ludwig moved into his father’s bedroom and slept on his bed that was too short for him. Rather than ordering a new bed, Ludwig started to build a new castle close to Hohenschwangau that would be his private retreat. After Ludwig’s mysterious death the crown went to his mentally ill brother Otto who was incapable of ruling and his functions were carried out by a prince regent. Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria was the last person to occupy the castle. After his death, the castle was open to the public, although it remains property of the descendants of the royal family.

It is easy to walk from one castle to another and there is plenty of time to do that.

The second castle Neuschwanstein is more fascinating. Ludwig chose scenes from Wagner’s operas for wall murals. He also was crazy about swans. Ludwig was sometimes called the ‘Swan’ King or the ‘Mad’ King. No wonder that the castle name means New Swan Stone. Swans are present in every room. Door handles are shaped like swans; their images are on drapes or upholstery. The faucet of the sink in Ludwig’s bedroom is a large swan and water comes out of its beak. Ludwig had a flush toilet too. Running water in a building at that time was a rarity, but Ludwig spared no expense on making his residence comfortable.

Ludwig wanted Neuschwanstein to be very private. It was not meant to be shown to anyone with one exception – his friend Richard Wagner. The composer had his own bedroom in the castle with the best view. He stayed at the castle and wrote his music. Ludwig did not spend much time there. He was king and had responsibilities. It took 17 years to build his dream castle. During that time Ludwig only lived there 170 days mostly to supervise the castle construction. The second floor with servants’ quarters is not accessible to the public because it was never finished. Ludwig had other projects that he did not complete, for example, the Knight Bath where he wanted to recreate the ritual of Knights of Holy Grail. Only the shell of this room was built.

Ludwig’s eccentric behavior, enormous debts, and alleged homosexuality were embarrassing for the royal family. He was dethroned based on the assessment results that he was not fit to be king. Three days later Ludwig and the psychiatrist who led the assessment were found dead. The official cause of death was drowning, although no water was found in Ludwig’s lungs. According to Ludwig’s will, Neuschwanstein was to be destroyed after his death. Fortunately for us, it did not happen. The castle became a museum only 6 weeks after Ludwig died. This creation, beautiful inside and outside, served as inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle.

It was 2 pm when I returned to Füssen, had a nice all-you-can-eat lunch buffet near the tourist information office and after a walk around the city returned to the hotel to get the backpack. It was time to head to my next destination Augsburg. The train ride was about 2 hours. I surprisingly easily found the hotel Dom and settled in my room. Exposed timber trusses gave it a look similar to the room in Villa Toscana and the same feeling of coziness. The next day was going to be relaxing. I made a list of what to see in Augsburg. It was in no particular order and had no timeframe. I did not need to get up by a certain time and could play it by ear.