Two show castles and one real castle

After taking the Romantic Road to its furthest point South, I spent the day visiting castles.  The first two castles are the big tourist ones, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.  The last is Ehrenberg in Reutte, Austria.  The first two are the castles of King Ludwig II, King of Bavaria from 1864-1886.  They are in Fussen, Germany, near the Austria border, on the feet of the Alps. 




Hohenschwangau was built by his father as a summer retreat / hunting lodge.  It is from the time that the 13th century castles and nights were most romanticized.  It is filled with paintings of castles, knights, dragons, and such.  It is filled with lavish, but usable furniture.  It is fancy, as befitting of kings, but was used to live in and entertain in. 

On the other hand, Neuschwanstein was the fantasy castle created by Ludwig II as his most idealistic, extravagant, castle of old.  It was designed first by stage designers, then by architects. It is the castle that Disney based his castle on.  It was built from 1868 until Ludwig's death in 1886.  (note, this is the same time the Eiffel tower was built...)  It was never finished.   It is over the top in all regards.  Ludwig was good friends with the composer Wagner, and all of the rooms are filled with paintings from Wagners operas (all knights, ladies, castles, dragons, etc).  There is even a replica of a cave in the middle of the castle.  You are in a lavish room, you go through a door, and suddenly it feels just like you are in a cave, with realistic walls, stalagmites, stalactites, and a cozy little corner with a table.  Apparently it is the scene from one of Wagner's operas.  You then walk out of another door, and you are back in a lavish castle room.  Kind of crazy. 

His bedroom had elaborate carvings filling the room.  The bed was all carved, with a big canopy, the entire top of which was this elaborate castle scene with turrets and such.  They said it took 14 master wood carvers 4 years just to do the carvings in that one room along.  You look at it, and you can see why.  (oh, on a side note, in hisbedroom in Hohenschwangau, he had something neat.  He had glass dots embedded in the ceiling, which was painted a purplish-black. The servants could light a lantern in the room above his bedroom, and all of the glass bits would sparkle and flicker like stars.)  Everything was just ridiculous.  And, he had built 3 other castles before this one, and had plans for another castle, that would be even more elaborate that this one. 

However, he was officially declared insane and the next day, both him and his doctor were mysteriously found dead in a lake.  Was is murder, suicide, or an accident?  We will never know.  But, all work on the castles stopped, and Neuschwanstein became open for tours within a few weeks. 

After seeing these elaborate, extravagant castles, I then crossed the border into Austria, to see a true 13th century castle.  The ruins of this castle are on a hill, with turrets and all, but this one clearly was made to defend against attackers, and had to do so several times.  Reading the signs around the ruins, it was clear that not all of knighthood in those days was as romantic as the Wagner operas make it out to be.  This one was free of the hoard of tourists at the other two, and was quite peaceful. 

After the day of castles, I headed back to Freiburg to hang out with Danni and Johan again, then headed to Colmar, France.  More about that in the next post!