"The Mad King"

Next on the journey with mom came a trip to the very quaint village of Hohenschwangau, about a 10 minute bus ride from Fussen, and a million short legs of train travel from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Hohenschwangau, also on the famous Romantische Strasse, (Romantic Road) is home to two very stunning castles associated with the beloved "Mad King of Bavaria"- Ludwig II. The first castle, Hohenschwangau was where Ludwig II spent his childhood with his family. The second castle, called Neuschwanstein, is the castle that Walt Disney used as inspiration for the Cinderella castle. 

Arriving in Hohenschwangau was quite a site as the train gently rolled into the Bavarian Alps and the castles were set into the mountains. Our hotel was quite nice, though not as lavish and charming as the one in Rothenburg. Once we were settled in, we went out to "explore" Hohenschwangau, which basically consisted of eating dinner because the small town outside of Fussen only has accommodations, restaurants, and gift shops for the visitors to the castles. There is not much else to do in the area. So after watching some CNN and finagling how to operate the shower sans showercurtain we went to bed early and headed to the castles the next day. 

We woke in the morning to quite a dreary day with some sort of nasty winter mix precipitating down on us. (Mom was quite happy that I had called before she came and ensured her that she would need to bring her winter coat and gear, she was thanking me for it all weekend!) The mix did not deter us from our scheduled castle visit, though it did make so that the minibus was not running, thus forcing us to walk or travel by horse drawn carriage to the castle nestled in the Alps. We opted for the latter because I mean, honestly who doesn't want to say that they rode in a horse drawn carriage up to the Cinderella castle? The castle was quite stunning set in the mountains with snow falling upon it. (The nasty winter mix turned to beautiful snow as we climbed into the mountains) We were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, in an effort to preserve the paintings and artifacts. Much of the castle was not finished as Ludwig died before carrying out the plans for the entire castle. After the visit we acquired some very tasty, freshly pulled out of the oil donuts that were much tastier than the "schneeballen" and took a carriage down as well as it was getting quite slippery and mom only had tennis shoes which are not pristine for climbing down a steep hill in the ice. 

We wanted to go in the afternoon time to a cable car that took you way up into the mountains. But alas, this was not running for who knows what reason. So we decided to visit the Hohenschawgau castle as well, which turned out to be quite a good decision! This castle had much more lavish decoration and was finished as opposed to Neuschwanstein. There were a lot of interesting artifacts given to the Bavarian king as gifts which were on display. The tour gave a lot of history about the family that Kind Ludwig II emerged from and insight into some Bavarian history. 

After the second castle, we headed into Fussen to take a look around. It was a bit late on a Saturday so many shops were closed but the town was very cute and we saw the city wall and the castle and such there as well. 

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon, we headed back to Frankfurt where I showed mom the town. She especially loved the old town part of Frankfurt with the picturesque German buildings as well as walking along the water. I showed her around Darmstadt the next day, she was completely grossed out by my flat but did purchase me a reed diffuser and a nice pillow to make it a little more homey :)