Day 20 - Crazy Ludwig

Today is castle day. We're up early, have our German breakfast and head to the Castles. We're in luck. The weather and time of year keep the crowds to a minimum. We purchase tickets for both castle tours and begin our climb up to the Hohenschwangau, King Ludwig's childhood home.

Our tour begins promptly at 8:55. The tour guide speaks english, but the tour is given in German so we, along with another english speaking couple, are given recorders allowing us to listen to the tour in english. The tour is great but quite short, 30 minutes. There are 4 floors to the castle, but the tour only goes through the 2nd & 3rd floors, the queen & king's living quarters. Yep, they had their own quarters. But there was a hidden staircase between the bedrooms.

Now something was wrong with this family. There were only two sons: Otto, the younger was declared insane as a youth. And Ludwig, well he wasn't called crazy for nothing. And 2 days after he was diagnosed as insane, he's found floating in the lake with his phychiatrist. Guess he was spending too much on his chain of castles.

Next we opted to ride the bus up to Neuschwanstein. Before our tour we walk over the Marienbrucke (bridge). Yes, I said WE. My husband accompanied me all the way to the other side. We got a great shot of the castle, but the south side was covered in scaffolding. We sure have seen alot of that during this trip, especially in Munich. Perhaps Bavaria is sprucing up for the 2010 Passion Play. Ahhh, just speculation.

Before we leave the Schwangau area we grab some lunch. Does Apfelstrussle and coffee classify as lunch? Then we're off to Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber. The drive takes about 3 hours and we're fortunate enough to find lodging at Gasthaus Victoria, just inside the old town wall. It's an entire 3rd floor of a house and after being on the road for 3 weeks we're enjoying the extra space.

We leave our lodging and walk a portion of the old wall and head to the center of town. Our tummies are growling, but the German food menues just aren't our thing. So again we find a great little pasta place, tonight dining on Pesto Linguini. Yum! After dinner we're off to bed. Tomorrow we'll explore the town a bit.