The Romantic Road VII - Fussen, Germany Oct 28, 2007
Horse-drawn carriages were driven by chain smoking nervous Bavarians in single-feathered hats, while myriads of tourists were queuing up for their turn in a very un-orderly fashion. The carriages pulled on by the tired horses were steered up the hill amid tall auburn trees, mountain waterfalls, and a forest ground cushioned by layers upon layers of red and yellow leaves. For those who decided to spare the poor horses of such servitude and bondage, it was a 40 minute trek up to Neuschwanstein Castle.
It didn’t even seem that long as Ed and I took detours through the forest just to feel the damp squishes of the leaves. Mushrooms grew on broken tree logs and Ed pointed the spot where a wood pecker had furiously tapped his way into the bark. From not too far away we could hear the heavy hoofs of the horses carrying the overweight or otherwise lazy tourists, while their loud chatter and camera flashes disrupted our moment.
Halfway to the castle was a resting place for the horses, an unbelievably over-priced souvenir shop and a coffee kiosk. A young man in an apparent hurry sold us hot chocolates and two oversized brezels with salt rocks as big as uncut diamonds, all for an €11 rip-off. A frail and unkempt greyed-hair woman with a restaurant uniform sat on one of the benches, her bony back curved downwards into her lap smoking a cigarette and looking from her apathetic, cadaverous eyes on to the castle entrance.
Looking up from behind the trees we could already spot the legendary round peaks of Neuschwanstein’s towers, so tall we had to curve backwards to see if they ended or if they continued up to the clouds. The mountain mist seemed to be slowly clearing away revealing the baby blue sky, a perfect backdrop for this white-stoned fantasy castle. As Ed and I looked on to its dramatic presence, we wondered what dreamworks King Ludwig II of Bavaria had conjured up here amid the grumble of the white-capped peaks, high above and far away from the rest of the world. What did he do to turn this place into the most visited castle in Germany, and probably the world? - fussen, germany
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