Castles, castles and more castles

There are so many amazing castles all over Bavaria.  We went to the 3 castles that were built by King Ludwig, we learned of his obsession with swans, his obsession with Wagner and his obsession with building castles that he never really lived in.  They were amazing but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castles so you'll have to take our word for it. 

Neuschwanstein:

We stayed at a cute little hotel right at the base of the castle in Hohenschwangau. We sat out on our patio and could see Neuschwanstein up on the mountain side, it was beautiful. After touring the castle we went on a 5 hour hike to a lookout. It was supposed to be an amazing view of the castle with the Alps in the background but unfortunately we were in the thickest fog and couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of us. We kept going because there was supposed to be a restaurant at the top of this lookout and we were hungry. When we did finally get to the top, there was a restaurant but it wasn’t open and it didn’t look like it had been opened in a while. So, a little disappointed and very hungry we headed back down the mountain. Although we felt like we were hiking in a humidifier it was a great hike and we had a great time slipping and sliding all the way back down.

Linderhof:

This was another one of King Ludwig’s castles. Unlike the others he actually lived here for an extended period of timel.  The ornate detail on the interior of this castle was simply amazing!

He was cutting down all of the wild flowers!!

Herrenchiemsee:

We went to this castle with my parents as it wasn't too far from Salzburg.  It is on a little island in Lake Chiemsee.  It was fashioned after the Versailles Palace in France.  The gardens and fountains outside the castle were fascinating and I was surprised to see that they weren't full of coins!

On the ferry boat to the island