A Visit to Hohenschwangau Castle (Germany)

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The day after spending a day at Lindau to see the Christmas market and harbour town on Lake Contance in Germany, I drove from Munich to Hohenschwangau to see what is probably the world's most picturesque castle and Neuschwanstein Castle and the castle on the hill across from it, Hohenschwangau Castle. In this post, I will cover Hohenschwangau Castle, but keep checking for updates. 

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Hohenschwangau Castle was first mentioned in the 12th century on the hilltop in the town of Hohenschwangau. The castle was owned by Bavarian dukes but then was left to become run down. It had a new lease of life under king Maximillian II in the 1830s as a hunting lodge and summer residence and a continued lease of life under the king's son Ludwig, who built a castle on the neighbouring hill. The last resident, the king's mother, died in 1889. The castle then belonged to her brother-in-law, who died in 1912. The castle was then open to the public in 1913. 

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On the way through southern Bavaria on the way to Hohenschwangau, there was more snow. Snow had fallen in placed on the way back from Lindau the previous day. There are mountain views, and this is picturesque scenery.

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All of the tours of the castle are guided, and I suggest to book in advance. In order to book in advance, you need a few days. Because my trip was planned at the last minute, all advance tickets for the day had gone, even though I tried nearly a week before the day of visit. There are a limited number of tickets available on the day, but there are long queues, and they could sell out if you're not early enough. For your guided tour, you do need to be at the castle for the entrance and not to miss your slot as there aren't any refunds. The walking timings on the map are more than adequate.

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We had to climb up a set of stairs on the way to the top of Hohenschwangau Castle, and these were snow-covered and slippery.

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The guided tour took us across to the rooms where we learned about some of the items within the rooms. In one room was a piano that Wagner played on as Ludwig was a fan of music and the arts. The room that Ludwig stayed in was transformmed so that it appeared that he could sleep under the stars, and some of the ceiling was fitted with orbs that could be lit and glow.

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The views from the top of Hohenschwangau Castle are amazing, so we took these in after our guided tour. We then had to walk down, but we opted not to walk down the stairs this time as they were too slippery and I saw placed where people had fallen. We decided to walk down via the road, which was virtually slip-free and had nice views of the lake and castle.

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This is a beautiful castle. Keep checking back for my review of Newschwanstein Castle next door.

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