Castles visit

I forgot to include one more from the Meersburg castle. We had dueling cameras between Sister B and our daughter.

We spent some fun days in the house. It rained solid for over a day, including a dusting of snow the next morning. It was fun spending time together in the apartment, playing games and watching movies. Mother and daughter actually were able to finish watching the new Hobbit movie without going to sleep. (It took several tries, but you know how boring the movie is ;-)

Now I have the pictures from the Neuenschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. It was overcast that  day, as you can see from the pictures, but it was still a wonderful thing to see. These castles are very popular, though we came at a good time so there were not a lot of lines or crowds. Both castles did not allow pictures of the inside areas. They really showed the opulence of the time with these kings. King Maximillian built the Hohenschwangau castle as his private residence and did not entertain guests there, though the composer Richard Wagner came there often. The king's son, Ludwig, as the next king, had the Newenschwanstein castle built, up until the time the people revolted over how much it was costing, so it never was finished. King Ludwig was removed from power and died a few days later. The purpose of both these kings was to build "authentic" medieval castles, both on the ruins of real medieval castles, but they had no clue what real medieval castles were, and only built according to their fantasies. Here are the pictures.

 Hohenschwangau (above and below)

 Neuenschwanstein (above and below)

 Sister B with grandson. He is about to make an astute remark about the opulence of the castles. 

 At the entrance of the castle

The nearby falls and bridge.

The very long exit hallway. We were tired from all the stairs already and how we had this long passageway to leave the castle.

Overall, it was a beautiful experience. We learned a lot about the kings of Bavaria. 

Here is a view of the valley which was watched over by these kings.