Fussen - Majestic Neuschwanstein Schloss

About 40 minutes train from Munich, the castles of Fussen are spectacular for their size and design, looking exactly as castles should. This area is where the crazy king Ludwig built his castles, the yellow one as his summer home and the white one (Newschwanstein Scholss, the inspiration for the Disney castle) as his main palace.

Here's the summer home

the famed Swan Lake, with swans as promised but with significantly less dancing than expected

from which is an hour or so hike to the castle. Though nothing will compare with the Swiss Aps, the scenery here was beautiful. The path was also close to deserted, as we took a secondary path, which leads to the bridge behind the castle.

Here is the view of the castle from the bridge. A much better view is had here than closer to the castle, where it is simply too big. On the day we visited it was foggy, which adds to the fairy-tale quality of the castle (and helps to hide the scaffolding - they were renovating when we visited).

To get a better view still of the castle, we kept climbing from the other side of the bridge. It was a tough climb, and the view was a bit too foggy...

Luckily on the way down we found a better vantage point

Back on the bridge, some of the ffog had subsided

On the way back, fog was evaporating from the hills

Scholss Neuschwanstein, from closer

All told it was an excellent day. We were glad that we didn't use a tour guide, as we had the opportunity to wander, climb, and get the views from a distance that wouldn't have been possible with a group, even though we'll have to google the story of King Ludwig rather than having heard it on the spot.

A note for anyone going - there is a Bavaria train pass which costs 30 Euros for up to 5 people, which covers Munich, Fussen / Newschwanstein castle, and the rest of Bavaria. So for anyone not travelling alone, I would recommend doing that rather than taking a guided tour (30 Euros incl transport).