December 8 / 9: Neuschwanstein Castle & Third Reich History Walking Tour (Munich)
As I write this, we are on the high-speed ICE train to Berlin. The average speed is about 230 km/hr, reaching 270+ on the straightaways between cities. This is probably my favorite way to travel! You can pack however you want (no liquids issues or security to deal with), there is free WiFi and movies to watch, and it's smooth enough to work! It's a 4 hour train ride, we are a little over 2 hours in, and time flies.
Bryan really wanted to visit Neuschwanstein Castle while in Germany and I found a tour from Munich. Caveat - it was a 9 1/2 hour tour. He said 'no way'. Luckily I convinced him that it's worth it - if we're here and it's something he really wanted to see, let's do it. We skipped a couple of things in Nicaragua for stupid reasons like a long ride or cost slightly too much and I totally regret that. I will not skip something for stupid reasons again if I can help it!
The previous day's tours had been through a company called Radius Tours - they were well-organized, they started on time, and their instructions to find them were extremely easy to follow. This castle tour was with another company, which is fine...except that the reminder email they sent me the night before told us to look for people wearing yellow shirts that said Sandeman on them...And we got to the train station and stood there, not a yellow shirt in sight. There WERE, however, two big lines of people talking to a group with red jackets on...finally we thought we'd ask them if they knew where the Sandeman people were. Turns out, they were them, that was our tour! Goodness.
Anyway, as it is when herding adults who act like children, we were 30 minutes late leaving. But, we got to the Castle, heard a very interesting story about Mad King Ludwig (who built the castle) and enjoyed the day.
So, Mad King Ludwig was Ludwig II. The family lived in a beautiful yellow castle where he grew up. His father ignored him, never teaching him much about being a leader, even though Ludwig was to be the next King of Bavaria. His younger brother Otto was much better suited but he was not to take the thrown. Ludwig's father died when Ludwig was only 18, so he was thrown into leadership really young. He had zero interest in leading a country but loved living in his fantasy world. He dreamed up the design for Neuschwanstein when he was 13 and when he got his hands on the royal family's money, he had the castle built. Only 1/3 of it was ever completed, but what's there is gorgeous. Inside, lavish and outstanding.
It's a sad story...he was such a bad King that his uncle had him declared insane. He only lived in his castle for 163 days, never actually using the ballroom he had built for listening to music. At the asylum, which was one of his family's castles too, his doctor took him for a walk...the two were never seen alive again, both bodies found 2 days later in the lake. The truth behind what happened to them remains a mystery. There is potentially government coverup around Ludwig's cause of death.
Tragic story aside, the castle is amazing! It sits precariously a top a mountain, looking like a strong wind could blow it down. If it weren't for the painstakingly hard work to keep it restored, it would have fallen into the earth. The views from the castle are gorgeous...you can imagine walking around and loving the beauty around you every day.
Finally home from the tour, we were exhausted but hungry. We stopped into a pub by the train station for some good food - goulash again! - and our waiter was pretty sure I was his boss in an Undercover Boss episode! He said I looked just like her. Then he showed us pictures of him standing at the top of the Calgary Tower in March. Small world!
The next day, we slept in and headed out for a Third Reich walking tour. It may have been good to do that on the first day because the guide showed us so many places that we might have wanted to visit longer if we had the time. However, it was very, very insightful. There were so many buildings and spots in Munich that we could have walked right by without knowing the significance.
We saw were the Nazi party headquarters were, where Hitler and Mussolini stood overlooking the crowd, where rallies were held, the Coup d'Etat happened, "traitors" were hung, resistance people were tried and killed, where the Munich Agreement was signed and so much more.
Again, our guide was amazing but undertoned the entire tour with a message that, what happened with Hitler could happen to anyone if we don't pay attention and ask a lot of questions. He talked about how the first thing we see is often what sways our opinion and sometimes nothing can change this...He compared the "fake news" ordeal of today with the propaganda of then. The Germans have only been okay with talking about the war in the past 20 or so years. To talk about it before meant you hated your country, such is the trauma and stain that Hitler and his Nazis created. He even said that he doesn't like to use the word Nazi in any way to describe things today because that takes away its impact.
We ended off the day with lunch in another pub, a wander and some Gluhwein at the Marienplatz Christmas Market, and a hopeful glimpse of the 5 PM Glockenspiel puppetry display (it doesn't happen in the winter apparently).
Bryan really wanted to visit Neuschwanstein Castle while in Germany and I found a tour from Munich. Caveat - it was a 9 1/2 hour tour. He said 'no way'. Luckily I convinced him that it's worth it - if we're here and it's something he really wanted to see, let's do it. We skipped a couple of things in Nicaragua for stupid reasons like a long ride or cost slightly too much and I totally regret that. I will not skip something for stupid reasons again if I can help it!
The previous day's tours had been through a company called Radius Tours - they were well-organized, they started on time, and their instructions to find them were extremely easy to follow. This castle tour was with another company, which is fine...except that the reminder email they sent me the night before told us to look for people wearing yellow shirts that said Sandeman on them...And we got to the train station and stood there, not a yellow shirt in sight. There WERE, however, two big lines of people talking to a group with red jackets on...finally we thought we'd ask them if they knew where the Sandeman people were. Turns out, they were them, that was our tour! Goodness.
Anyway, as it is when herding adults who act like children, we were 30 minutes late leaving. But, we got to the Castle, heard a very interesting story about Mad King Ludwig (who built the castle) and enjoyed the day.
So, Mad King Ludwig was Ludwig II. The family lived in a beautiful yellow castle where he grew up. His father ignored him, never teaching him much about being a leader, even though Ludwig was to be the next King of Bavaria. His younger brother Otto was much better suited but he was not to take the thrown. Ludwig's father died when Ludwig was only 18, so he was thrown into leadership really young. He had zero interest in leading a country but loved living in his fantasy world. He dreamed up the design for Neuschwanstein when he was 13 and when he got his hands on the royal family's money, he had the castle built. Only 1/3 of it was ever completed, but what's there is gorgeous. Inside, lavish and outstanding.
It's a sad story...he was such a bad King that his uncle had him declared insane. He only lived in his castle for 163 days, never actually using the ballroom he had built for listening to music. At the asylum, which was one of his family's castles too, his doctor took him for a walk...the two were never seen alive again, both bodies found 2 days later in the lake. The truth behind what happened to them remains a mystery. There is potentially government coverup around Ludwig's cause of death.
Tragic story aside, the castle is amazing! It sits precariously a top a mountain, looking like a strong wind could blow it down. If it weren't for the painstakingly hard work to keep it restored, it would have fallen into the earth. The views from the castle are gorgeous...you can imagine walking around and loving the beauty around you every day.
Finally home from the tour, we were exhausted but hungry. We stopped into a pub by the train station for some good food - goulash again! - and our waiter was pretty sure I was his boss in an Undercover Boss episode! He said I looked just like her. Then he showed us pictures of him standing at the top of the Calgary Tower in March. Small world!
The next day, we slept in and headed out for a Third Reich walking tour. It may have been good to do that on the first day because the guide showed us so many places that we might have wanted to visit longer if we had the time. However, it was very, very insightful. There were so many buildings and spots in Munich that we could have walked right by without knowing the significance.
We saw were the Nazi party headquarters were, where Hitler and Mussolini stood overlooking the crowd, where rallies were held, the Coup d'Etat happened, "traitors" were hung, resistance people were tried and killed, where the Munich Agreement was signed and so much more.
Again, our guide was amazing but undertoned the entire tour with a message that, what happened with Hitler could happen to anyone if we don't pay attention and ask a lot of questions. He talked about how the first thing we see is often what sways our opinion and sometimes nothing can change this...He compared the "fake news" ordeal of today with the propaganda of then. The Germans have only been okay with talking about the war in the past 20 or so years. To talk about it before meant you hated your country, such is the trauma and stain that Hitler and his Nazis created. He even said that he doesn't like to use the word Nazi in any way to describe things today because that takes away its impact.
We ended off the day with lunch in another pub, a wander and some Gluhwein at the Marienplatz Christmas Market, and a hopeful glimpse of the 5 PM Glockenspiel puppetry display (it doesn't happen in the winter apparently).
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