Around Munich: The Royal Version (Swans and Hoes)

Sorry Mom.

Hello Eveyone. I am on a roll today, this is post #3! I think it's going to be a long one too. So this past weekend I have deemed, 'The Royals Weekend.' I don't know why I am intrigued by the kings and queens of Germany ... it might be my love of German history, the fact that we dont have them in the states OR that a lot of German kings seem to have been crazy haha. No joke! My favorite happens to be Ludwig II, or as you probably know him, the guy who made the original Cinderella's Castle. He is also known as 'Mad King Ludwig' or the 'Fairy Tale King.' A little background for you (I'm sorry if this bores you ...), he became king at the ripe ol' age of 18 when his father died suddenly. He was never married but had several close relationships with men, including the composer Wagner. This had lead to the spectulation that he was gay. When he was older he built several fairy tale castles, one you will see further down this post. Eventually he was deemed 'mentally unstable' by the government and forced to give up his crown (his uncle convienently took up the post). A few days later, he went for a walk with a doctor around a lake near Munich and few hours later found dead ... in waist high water and he was known for being an excellent swimmer. Totally Sketchy!

So anywho, Brittany and I went to see two of his castles this weekend. They are situated in the Bavarian Alps a meer hour away from Munich. One was his summer home as a child, Castle Hohenschwangau (pay attention, I will probably only use their real names once) that was built by a beautiful lake.

I like the Orange color personally :)

Schwansee

He is also called the 'Swan King' and several swans can be seen throughout the castles. Here's some more pictures from Hogwarts:

Swan!

Looking out to Cinderella's Castle from Hogwarts

So this is where I will say a few things about the tours of these castles. You must go through the castles with a guide, luckily there are english tours available. The tours themselves are really, really short. The one of Hogwarts was really short, only about 25 minutes. They show you the living quarters of the king and the queen. Sadly, no pictures are allowed!! Brittany and I could not figure out why, something I thought about even more later on in the weekend. Luckily, you can wander the grounds as much as you want and take pictures there. The interesting points from Hogwarts: the kings bedroom was covered in nakey ladies (someone wanted sweet dreams), the king had his own floor, the queen hers and the children were in a completely different building (with a secret door from the queens room to the king), one hundred year old bread! I dont know why they felt the need to keep bread for that long, but hey, lets give it to them for their effort! I was totally the girl who was telling facts before the tour guide actually got to them, sorry Brittany. I was that girl. Oh! And definitely book your tickets in advance online. I bought ours the day before and we skipped the hour-long line at the ticket booth!

After a nice walk by Swan Lake, Brittany and I made our way up to Schloss Neuschwanstein, hereby known as Cinderella's Castle. You'd think with all this German around me I'd be able to pronounce that word but nope. We took this winding path for milessssss, okay like one but it was pretty steep ... at some points haha. I am proud to say that we kept in pace with horses pulling like twenty people up the mountain! Again, not that impressive. Did I mention I'm trying to get in shape? haha Anywho, so Ludwig wanted this castle to overlook his childhood home in the beautiful Alps. Sadly, Ludwig 'died' before the castle was complete so a lot of the interior rooms remain unfinished. I think he actually lived about 170 days in the castle. During the tour (again, short 35 minutes) you do get to see his living quarters, which were quite ellaborate! Again, no photos but I think Brittany snagged a few before getting yelled at by the tour guide behind us. You can see her awesome blog here. You might even see a few shots of me, something I generally dont do with my own camera! My favorite, favorite part was a walkway between his office and his living space. It was made to look like a fake cave, something from one of Wagner's Operas. He also had artwork of Tristian and Isolde all over his bedroom. Very cool.

Courtyard

Looking Back to the Mountains

The best view of the castle is by far from Marianbrücken, a bridge that was built for Ludwig's mother. She was one of the first female mountain climbers in Germany. It is made of iron, but the actual walkway is single planks of wood. Yes, only one layer of wood. It was a little intimidating, especially at the beginning where people tended to cluster. I could definitely see this bridge in a future edition of an engineering disasters book.

View of bridge from Cinderella's Castle

But don't let my fears scare you, like I said BEST view of Cinderella's Castle.

Ahhhhhhhh

Over the Bridge, thats a long way down!

To continue my royal weekend, I went to the Residenz in München. This was the official residence of the royal families while they were in Munich. It's also where their treasury is so you know I was looking at all the awesome jewelry. So some facts about the residenz, geezzz am I sounding like a loser or what? Well, it is extremely large with a beautiful garden. Large amounts of it were destroyed in WWII, enough that large portions of the outer buildings are painted to look like they used to on concrete walls or something. But in the Residenz you CAN take pictures so this time I will show more then talk! Yayyyy!

Birthday Present

Christmas Present

For Dad, Pat and Mattrick

Bavarian Crown: Happy Bday Momsicle

On the Grotto, German verison of the Blob I think

Courtyard Fountain- Noticed how they incorportated the decapitated head of Medusa into the fountain!

Big room with lots and lots of Heads

Hall of Ancestry- Pictures of the German Royal Family and a family tree!

A relic- Apparently relic means to save old gross hands and encase them as something precious. Man, that got lost in translation for me.

Royal Chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary

Some room with a baller ceiling

Okay, I think thats enough for now. You've probably had your fill of Ludwig II! Next I want to learn about his grandfather, Ludwig I, who used to have paintings made of the women that he 'conquered.' There's about 30 of them in another castle in Munich. Also, he later had an affair with someone named Lola Montez or something! Its like a soap opera, seriously!
PS- I am a little sad about the cancelation of Kate Plus 8, I used to love that show before she turned into a celebrity whore (sorry again mom haha).