{"id":3276,"date":"2012-09-20T19:26:23","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T19:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=3276"},"modified":"2019-01-28T12:50:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T12:50:23","slug":"a-damsel-in-distress-visiting-neuschwanstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/a-damsel-in-distress-visiting-neuschwanstein\/","title":{"rendered":"A Damsel in Distress (visiting Neuschwanstein)…"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Mum was with us last week so we headed to Garmisch and its fabulous mountains for a few days.<\/p>\n

As it’s not too much of a detour, we stopped at Schwangau on the way to visit Neuschwanstein<\/a> – King Ludwig’s iconic castle, inspiration for Walt Disney’s fairytale castles all those years ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinderella et al have a lot to thank Bavaria’s “Mad” King for you know…<\/p>\n

I guess we weren’t that far away, when the Seven Year Old professed that she could see the castle on the side of a hill…\u00a0 The doubters in the front didn’t think so however, and we all agreed it was a lot whiter and more fairytale like in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang than the one that was slowly coming into view….\u00a0\u00a0 How we laughed at my Mum’s comment that it would be ever so disappointing if you had travelled half way across the world to see it, and that was actually it.<\/p>\n

\"Neuschwanstein<\/a><\/p>\n

As we drew closer still, it slowly dawned on us that yes, this odd looking structure was in fact Neuschwanstein itself.\u00a0 Not in all it’s glory, but kind of looking like it had been completely covered in bubble wrap, and was about to be posted to Japan or somewhere…\u00a0\u00a0 Not exactly what we were expecting, and judging by the confused expressions of the coach loads of tourists from all corners of the globe, neither were they!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thankfully the older members of our party all found it highly amusing, and the smaller members weren’t exactly bothered either way.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lesson in doing our research beforehand perhaps?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A friend later told me that it has looked like this for around three years now… If anyone cares to hazard a guess as to when it will be unveiled again, please do fill me in…<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s not the main reason I will always remember visiting Neuschwanstein. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At Mr R’s insistance, we climbed to the top to take a closer look, although I will admit at the time I saw little point.\u00a0 With stomachs aching from laughing each time one of us looked up at the “beautiful” castle before us, we trudged to the top.\u00a0 It took quite a while, it’s a big hill…<\/p>\n

Wanting to see whether it looked different from any other angle, we walked around to the back.\u00a0 It does slightly, but it’s still not as magnificent as it hopefully will again soon…\u00a0 By this point however, the castle had almost been forgotten.\u00a0 It sounded like there was a huge waterfall around the corner…\u00a0\u00a0 Lured on by this, we followed the signs directing us down to a Gorge<\/a> – the more nervous of our group having been reassured by walkers in the other direction that it was perfectly safe, and easy enough for all of us.\u00a0\u00a0 It would be fine.\u00a0\u00a0 The professional photographer in the group was further blackmailed with the promise of amazing scenery, and so off we set.<\/p>\n

\"Neuschwanstein<\/a><\/p>\n

It didn’t take long for us to reach the majestic and quite frankly huge waterfall…\u00a0 All admiring dealt with,\u00a0 photographs taken, and buoyed on by the fact that the trek had been easy enough so far, we carried on.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Further lulled into a false sense of security by a tranquil pool\u00a0 filled with little stone towers along the way (and quite possibly helped by the sneaky picnic bier that Mr R had magically produced from his backpack), we descended to the next level alongside a series of smaller waterfalls.<\/p>\n

\"Neuschwanstein<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Neuschwanstein<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can just about see in the picture above, the path then changes from lovely wide stone, to metal grid jutting out of the side of a rock, which carries you over the roaring water underneath.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This wasn’t actually problematic for the majority of our group, but for Poor Granny it soon became clear that this was not her idea of fun.\u00a0 In fact she went on strike at the top of the metal path and refused to move…\u00a0 Luckily for us the ever growing mass of people behind were very understanding, and waited patiently while I headed down to find the search and rescue team – i.e. her Son in Law –\u00a0 who hadn’t seen the scenario and was a bit more advanced in the journey than we were… \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And so the rest of us sat and waited, and told stories while Granny was rescued – led down the path with her eyes closed, and with around 30 very kind and patient people following behind.<\/p>\n

Drama over, and with Granny now suffering from hysterics of a more jovial kind, the rest of the gorge proved a lot less problematic, but no less beautiful…\u00a0 I am just grateful we\u00a0 didn’t find the bridge above the big waterfall in my second picture…\u00a0\u00a0 It might have been a case of a newsworthy helicopter rescue!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We deserved lunch that day, and no-one cared about diets…<\/p>\n

\"dumpling<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Share me:<\/h3>