Munich; Sunday, 03 October, 2004

Sunday dawned clear and sunny and it was time for a trip away from Munich.

About 60 miles South West of Munich lies Füssen. The town lies at the end of the railway line, hemmed in by the Alps and just a few short miles from the Austrian border. Füssen itself is a very pretty town, but the main reason people come here is to catch the bus the 3 kilometers to the even more picturesque village of Hohenschwangau.

Hohenschwangau lies at the foot of the Alps, against a large Alpine lake and this would itself be able to draw in quite a large crowd. The fact the (Mad) King Ludwig decided to build his most spectacular castle Schloß Neuschwanstein on the side of the hill has secured the villages spot on the tourist trail.

The castle is the epitome of the "Fairy Tale" castle. In fact it is the Fairy Tale castle as Disney modeled their castle on Neuschwanstein.

If that wasn't enough there is another equally impressive castle just the other side of the village Schloß Hohenschwangau - Ludwig's childhood home.

The whole of the village exists these days to serve the massive crowds of tourists that even on a Sunday at the beginning of October are feet deep in places!

First stop is the ticket booth where you purchase your guided tours of the castles. You can choose to do just one of the castles, or like we did opt to do both which means you have a 35 minute tour of Schloß Hohenschwangau and then 2 hours after the tour at Schloß Hohenschwangau your tour at Schloß Neuschwanstein starts.

Both castles are very impressive and well worth looking around. Though the walk from the village to Schloß Neuschwanstein is lung busting and leg aching. It feels like you are climbing half way up the side of an Alp, and to some extent you are!

After visiting the two castles we headed back to the bus stop to get the bus back to the train station. Unfortunately so had about 100 other people, and as the buses were not that big we ended up walking the 3KM back to Füssen which meant that we actually saw some spectacular views which we wouldn't otherwise have got!

After waiting a short while for the train and changing once we finally got back to Munich, had a bite to eat and all fell into bed, exhausted.