2nd August 2018 - Schwangau, Neuschwanstein Castle

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Kms today = 334
Kms  to date = 5,639

Had breakfast at our hotel (continental) plus boiled egg. Left around 8am and decided to take the quickest way. We stopped at the little village of Hagau on lake Bodensee also known as lake Constance for coffee and cake, very tasty. We sat by the lake and enjoyed the view.
A ferry arriving at the wharf in Lake Bodensee.
There was barely a breeze and it was heating up. Unfortunately it was a slow crawl through the villages along the lakeside and getting hotter by the minute. By the time we got to the Autobahn we were a ball of sweat. We fanged down the Autobahn heading for Fussen. There is no speed limit so we sat around 130 but even at that speed cars were passing us as though we were standing still at 200+. We arrived at Hogenschwangau at 1.15pm to pick up our tickets. No problems.  For €2 we could park the bikes quite near the ticket centre. The place was crawling with tourists. You could take a bus, horse and cart or walk up the hill to the castle.
This is the leisurely way to get to the castle.
The girl in the ticket office recommended that we walk.We had plenty of time until our tour (no. 495) at 3.55pm so we headed for our hotel in Schwangau about 7kms away. We booked in and unloaded our gear. Because it was so hot and the castle was so close I decided to wear shorts on the bike with only my helmet for protection as we headed back for our tour. The walk to the entrance of the castle took about 30 minutes and wasn't very hard. The whole tour system was very regimented. When our tour no. came up on the screen at the entrance we filed in scanning our tickets as we went. At the same time the previous tour no. 494 was being ushered into the castle by their tour guide. I thought I'd been to this castle back in 1988 but I didn't recognise it so I must have visited another of Mad Ludwig's castles.
Neuschwanstein castle.

Wandering minstrel??

The  view from the front.

The view  from the ticketing centre.
Colin liked the tour but I didn't as there was not a lot to see. The rooms were small and few in comparison to the outside dimensions of the castle. King Ludwig II of Bavaria was known as Mad Ludwig because he spent the family fortune on building outlandish castles. He was certified as mad by his family and found dead in a lake with his psychiatrist in very mysterious circumstances. When he died the family stopped the work on all his castles. After the tour we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at a local pub. Not very inspiring. Back at the hotel we had a game of Gin in the restaurant with coffee and cake. By a miracle Colin managed to win so the score is now 4 to 3 in his favour. Went to bed with the windows open to try and cool the room down. Unfortunately we were invaded by an army of mozzies. The hotel didn't have any fly spray and the shops were closed. We had a very uncomfortable night.

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