As you know I´ve had my friend Jennifer stopping by this weekend to visit me. We worked together in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and planned a meet up in Germany as we are both in the country right now. On Friday night I picked her up at the train station. We chatted a few hours and planned to see the castles on Saturday.

I always do the tour like that: Start at Castle Linderhof - have a break at Plansee (lake in Austria) - walk up the hill to get to castle Neuschwanstein, walk to Marien bridge to see it from far away - Go back and drive home.

I think for every tourist it is obligatory to see them while they are here in the south of Germany. That´s why for me it was the third time driving there in 5 weeks :D

The first time was while my friend came over from Chile, the second when I had my ex roomies coming here from Spain and now Jenny. All in all I visited it eigth times already :D

Every time I wanted to do a post about it, but couldn´t find the time. So know I will do one about "my classic tour". Jenny called it __"the Chichen Itza of Bavaria"(that was our most sold tour in Mexico), because it is indeed a bit touristy... but also beautiful and totally worth it.

To give you some background information: Both castles we visited where built by kind Ludwig II. (*25. of August in 1845 - † 13. of June in1886). He was a very special king in Bavaria.

He loved the art, theater, opera and music and supported a lot of artists. Building castles was one of his favorite hobbies and he almost financed them all with his own money. As a very futuristic thinking man he had all of them built with electric light, phone, elevators and heating.

His character was special too. He was a bit of a loner. Didn´t want to have a lot of visitors or parties. He was a vegetarian and detested hunting - It was not allowed on his property while he was alive. Also he loved fairy tales. At his castles you can see that. He was a big dreamer and every room had a theme.

The people loved him, because he was an intelligent man supporting the poor. He gave them work and made sure that people got payed even if they got sick etc. He kind of invented the insurance system.

Sadly he died very young. When he had almost finished the Neuschwanstein castle he ran out of money. He wanted to get a loan from the government, but the ministers wouldn´t allow it. - So as he was about to exchange some ministers to change their mind they took him as a prisoner.

They wanted him to give up the throne, so they got three doctors to testify, that he was mentaly ill. The doctors never saw him or checked him on a medical basis, but supported this deposition.

Nobody really knows what happened next... he was found dead with one of the doctors a few days later at lake Starnberger See. Both were dead... drowned in the water, which was really weird, because Ludwig was a fantastic swimmer. Well, as he never married and never had any children, his uncle took his job and that was it.

So back to the tour:

I´ve been there like eight times now and want to use pictures of all eight times I went. so don´t get confused if there are different people on the photos or all of the sudden it is winter instead of summer :D

Stop 1. : Castle Linderhof.

The kings villa "Castle Linderhof" is located in Ettal, in the south of Bavaria. It was built between 1870 and 1886 in the middle of the bavarian forest with view towards the alps.

People say that it was Ludwigs favorite castle, in which he lived most of the time. Today you are able to visit the inside with a tour and are allowed to walk around at the park and gardens. He never received any visitors there.

Sadly we where not allowed to take any pictures on the inside so I just added this youtube video to get them for you anyway (the inside view starts after about twenty seconds)

In front of the building you can walk up the stairs, passing the beautiful fountains, to get a nice view of the castle.

If you go behind the castle up the hill you will find another little wonderful park with a lot of flowers and statues.

Here also a little video to get an idea from the atmosphere:

Getting to the top you will discover Ludwigs favorite place, which is also the highlight of this castle: The Cave of Venus.

Ludwig built himself an artificial stalactite cave with heatet pool, wave machine, rainbow machine, a little waterfall, music, beautiful paintings and electric light.

Stop 2. : Lake Plansee.

After all this information and walking, it is great to have a little break, eat something at a beautiful place with awesome view and maybe lie down for a bit.

Lake Plansee can be on your way from one castle to the other, if you pick the right route. It is the perfect place to refresh yourself in summer and it looks always beautiful. You are crossing the border to austria for a few kilometers though. (No border control by the way ;) ).

I love the color of the lake! It always has a lot of different blue and green shades. The water is refreshing cold as the lake is located on the submontane. We even brought out hammock to chill out ;)

Stop 3. : Castle Neuschwanstein

To get to this castle you have three options: Taking the bus, taking a carriage or walk. I´ve done all of them at least once and I must say that I prefer walking :) As you can see the view changes every time - most of all because of the four seasons we have in Germany :) (spring, summer, fall and winter).

Arriving to the top, you get to the castle itself, where you have the choice to join a tour and see the inside. (tickets have to be bought down the hill). The castle was never fully finished, because Ludwig did so many changes on the original plan that it took a lot longer. He never saw it like it is now.

I am not a big fan of taking the tour there! It is interesting, but nothing compared to Castle Linderhof... especially because Ludwig never really lived there. Apart from that, it is so touristy that there are really big groups being pushed through the castle as fast as possible.. I didn´t really enjoy it.

People from the US often call it Disneys castle, because Walt Disney himself used it as a model for his drawings. Therefore it is interesting to follow the hiking trail a bit further and get to Marien bridge.

From there you get a great view of the castle:

If you still don´t have enough of this castle after the bridge, you can follow the hiking trail a bit more and take a picture from the other side, or go until the top of the "Tafelberg", where people offer you to parachute down and get a view from the top, which would be a bit like this drone video.

On your way back you even get a nice view on the castle in front of Neuschwanstein: Castle Hohenschwangau. This is where Ludwig grew up! If you have more time it is also worth it to go there or take a tour, but it isn´t the main sight.

The way back down through the forest is in general very beautiful in every season. That´s why I always prefer walking instead of taking the bus.

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