On the train ride through the country there were these incredible rustic roads that made me really wish that I was on a bike instead of a train. Which bike? It doesn't really matter. I would love to ride either the Harley or the road bicycle through the German countryside. When we got to Fussen, it didn't help that we passed a bike rental shop and saw a bunch of people actually riding up to the castle. I had to keep reminding myself: "This trip is for business... it wouldn't be cool to ditch the group to rent a bicycle". I finally just resolved that I would have to come back again sometime to do it the "right way".
The castle was a half hour hike (walk) up a hilll from where the Bus dropped us off. It actually felt good to stretch out my legs for a little bit after spending a couple of hours on the train. We stopped for lunch at restaurant just a couple of minutes from castle. It was pretty cool to eat lunch outside on the porch with one of the castle spires looming above us. The food was really good too. I had real German Bratwurst and Apple Streussel. Mmmm...
I actually had a chance to get a short jog in before eating lunch. A couple people in our group didn't realize that we had stopped at the restaurant and kept walking up the hill towards the castle. Before anyone realized that they were missing they were out of sight and earshot up the hill. While someone fumbled for a phone to try and get ahold of them, I handed my stuff to Dirk and just broke into a jog up the hill. It only took me a minute to catch up to them. I actually beat the phone call :) It amuses me that a couple of months ago I couldn't run for more than a couple of minutes without stopping and now I am able to run up a pretty steep incline without batting an eye.
So, about the castle... It was built by King Ludwig in 1864. Actually it was started in 1864 and was never completed before he died. King Ludwig was named king at 18 and never really accepted the responsibility of the position. Instead he nearly drove the country broke by building all of these ornate fairytale castles all over the country. This particular castle was built as a dedication to the music of Richard Wagner. Various rooms in the castle were painted with characters from Wagner's various operas and there was a "singing room" where performances of Wagner's music were given for the king.
Some of the marble fixtures inside the castle were really impressive but overall I thought that most of the inside of the castle was rather gaudy. The paintings were in bright colors and there was a lot of gold paint and fake looking jewels. The most impressive part of the castle in my opinion was the view that you got of the surrounding countryside when you looked out the windows. It was for this reason that I wasn't upset to discover that they didn't allow photos of the inside of the castle. Apparently they want you to buy post cards in the gift shop. They were pretty strict about it too. A couple of people in our group almost got kicked off the tour for taking photos inside.
One of the most interesting rooms in the castle was the cave room. King Ludwig had built a special room to look like the inside of a cave. It came complete with fake stalagmites and stalactites. It was really kind of bizarre.
The only thing that I didn't like about the whole castle experience was that it was so rushed. We had a meeting back at the hotel at 5PM and the train ride took a 4 hour chunk out of the day. So, we really didn't get to spend that much time at the castle. I was particularly disappointed that we didn't get to do any hiking in the mountains surrounding the castle. There were several trails that went to waterfalls and a gorge. It literally caused me physical pain to have to leave without doing any hiking. Again, I had to remind myself that this trip was being paid for by one of our partners so it wouldn't be cool to skip their meeting to go hiking in the Alps. I consider myself lucky just to have seen the scenery that I got to see today. I'm glad that I got the opportunity to go even if I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked to.
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