I haven’t written any post for a while. I did not travel much the last month – only some long weekend or day trips. But now I’ll tell you about my trip to Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria and the few stops along the road. We had a bank holiday and a long weekend. Since the beginning of this year, I was thinking about going to Neuschwanstein to finally visit the fairytale castle.

The route towards Neuschwanstein is called the romantic road, is approx. 462 km long and starts in Würzburg. As we only had 3 days for our road trip, we didn’t do the whole romantic road just a few stops on the way.

Day 1 Rothenburg ob de Tauber and Augsburg

Our first stop was Rothenburg ob de Tauber. A must see! It’s such a beautiful and romantic small city, I really felt in love. I cannot give you any specific tipps what to see there as we only strolled around but in the end we spent 4h there and that was still not enough. So my tipp: If you don’t have much time on the romantic road, Rothenburg is still a must-stop over 🙂

From Rothenburg we went to Augsburg. We spent a night here as we were driving all the way from Düsseldorf down to Bavaria and I thought a stopover after driving almost all day would be good. We arrived at nighttime in Augsburg and please correct me if I’m wrong, but except that the city is famous for the Augsburger puppet theatre I don’t think, that the city is worth a visit. I booked our room on Airbnb – so if you need any advice, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Day 2 Munich and Highline 179 in Austria

The next day we continued towards Füssen – to finally enjoy the landscape and the castles. Well, ok, as we have been so close to Munich, we did a short 2h-stop-over there as we already know Munich. But we couldn’t resist ^^

As it is right next to the Austrian border (Tyrol) we decided to go the longest rope bridge in the world: Highline 179. Just next to the bridge, is the Ehrenberg castle. If you want to cross the bridge you need to pay 8 Euro but it’s definitely worth it! If you have no head for heights, your probably shouldn’t cross the bridge ^^

 

We arrived at a quite good time as it still was bright outside but getting dark within 1,5 hours. So we got to see the view and the bridge by daytime but also by nighttime which is very beautiful as they turn on the bridge and also the castle’s light. Do not forget to take a torch as the way down when it’s already dark ist not lighted. By the way, the are building an elevator to go up to the bridge which is due to be opened in 2019. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed walking up and down and would always prefer to walk 🙂

It was a long day (getting up early as it gets dark early) and we were really tired and enjoyed arriving at our Airbnb, getting a shower, have some dinner and finally go to bed as the next day was about to start early again: Hohenschwangau & Neischwanstein Castle.

Day 3 Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein, Alpsee and Füssen

It took us about 40 minutes to go to Neuschwanstein. Luckily, we booked our entrance tickets online before. You should also do that to avoid queues and in the worst case sold out entrance ticket – which was the case when we arrived there. Children up to 18 years have free entrance. You can buy different ticket combinations – just check it out here.

We had the King’s Ticket covering the entrance and guide for both castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. The cost is 25 € + some online booking fees. The tickets a time bound, keep that in mind when buying them. I won’t bore you about the history as you can read about it anywhere on the internet. Just one thing: Hohenschwangau is the origin castle. King Maximilian II, the father of King Ludwig II, lived in that castles with his family.

After his father died, King Ludwig II started to plan and construct his very own fairytale castle Neuschwanstein. He never lived there though, as he died before the castle was finished. I can definitely recommend to visit both castles. Both are beautiful, worth to visit and interesting to listen to the history. Oh, an one more thing: The Disney castle was inspired by Neuschwanstein castle, obviously not the other way round 😉

 

The castles are surrounded by the beautiful Alpsee. A perfect photo spot of a lake surrounded by mountains and castles, breathtaking!

When going up to Neuschwanstein castle you can either walk up or take the bus. We did take the bus to the castle but walked down. Along the route (you need a car or take the bus as it is about 1h drive from Neuschwanstein), you can find some more castles and beautiful mountains and lakes and landscapes but you need to have time. We only had 3 days so we concentrated only on a few places. Anyway, the place is so beautiful and breathtaking that we spent a whole day there. Half day taking pictures at the Alpsee and half day visiting the castles 😀

 

We finished the day in Füssen, a historical town just next to the castles and had dinner in a traditional Bavarian Brauhaus. Yes, we are from Germany but still, when you’re not from Bavaria it’s something special to go to a typical Bavarian place to have some regional food 🙂

Day 4 Würzburg and way back home

Unfortunately our long weekend came to an end. It was time to make our way back home. 700 km, a long time in the car ^^. On our way back we did a short stop-over in Würzburg. I was positively surprised, it is a cute and beautiful city. I wish we have had more time but it was enough to get a good positive glimpse of that city and I recommend you to stop there. Würzburg is also part of the romantic road.

It was a really great weekend with beautiful places on our way. I’ll definitely want to go back and see some more of Bavaria and also Austria. Before, I never understood when people were going for holidays to Bavaria or Austria, my thought was: how boring is that?! But now, I can understand it and it is a very good holiday destination, especially when you like to do some hiking and being surrounded by mountains. Or of course skiing during winter time 🙂 By the way, next weekend (Sat&Sun) I’ll be in Innsbruck, Austria. I found some cheap flights, 30 € return and decided it will be a perfect short getaway for the weekend 🙂 Next post will follow….