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For the last day of our second free-travel week, Becky, Shandra, and I decided to go see Schloss Neuschwanstein. We caught a train from Basel to Zurich, and from there on to Munich Saturday night, and stayed the night in Munich.
This morning, we caught a train out to a small village, where we would then be riding a bus up to Neuschwanstein. What we didn't know was that it wasn't a bus... oh no, it was a human sardine can on wheels. Apparently, though the bus runs regularly, it also runs infrequently, thus creating a need to run off of the train to be high in the queue to get on the bus. Shandra and I each managed to wrangle a seat, but Becky ended up standing. Once all the seats were full, and all the standing room was full, the driver yelled, and next thing we knew, the personal space was full too. Fortunately, it wasn't a long ride, and we arrived in the small village at the base of the mountains Neuschwanstein castle, and the castle belonging to Ludwig's parents.
After buying tickets, and realizing that it would be over an hour before our tour started, we decided to eat lunch. Shandra and I also each invested in a pair of hobo gloves, as we were adventuring during the first major snowfall of the season. After eating, we made the 20 minute hike up to the castle, as the only form of transportation in the present weather was horse-drawn wagon, and too few to deal with the number of tourists. As the temperature was warm enough to keep the falling snow in a fairly constant state of slushiness, the walk was rather wet, but we made it to the castle in plenty of time to dry off a bit before the tour.
Beautiful, but fake - crazy Ludwig's fairy tale castle was built in the late 1800s - he only lived in it for around 200 days before he was pronounced insane one day, and died mysteriously the next. Every room in the king's quarters is decorated; frescoes on every wall illustrate various Wagner operas. The castle has electricity, hot and cold water, central heating, and a telephone, among other things. Still unfinished at the time of Ludwig's death, remaining construction was halted, and the castle was turned into a museum by his family.
After the tour, we slid our way up to the lookout bridge, and then back down to eat dinner at an inn near the base of the castle. Finally, we caught the sardine-bus back to the other village, and from there, the train back to Munich. We will be riding a night train down to Italy to meet back up with the group for the final leg of the trip.
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