MAD ABOUT NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE

Where fairytales are made from…

Neuschwanstein means, “New Swan Stone.” The name of the castle derives from one of Richard Wagner's opera's character, the Swan Knight. This castle was imagined and instructed to be created by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1868. This young King was a dreamer and romantic. He made many beautiful castles and places to escape reality. There is even a decorated functioning room in a secret grotto where he was known to dress up and pretend to be someone else. One can see his magical imagination come to life when driving past Neuschwanstein Castle, as it absolutely pops vividly and majestically nestled high up in the mountains. There is no direct street or way to enter the castle, one must walk at least 30 minutes up hill to get close to it.

Walt Disney visited this castle countless times and fell in love with its unique beauty, thus inspiring him to use this castle as his Walt Disney World emblem. Be sure to check out Cinderella again, as this is the castle of her dreams! Of course this fact makes me smile, and only makes visitors feel more like a princess when visiting. That being said, in the summer tourist season, Neuschwanstein sees up to 6000 visitors a day. It is extremely difficult to be guaranteed a tour of the inside. My boyfriend, Curtis, and I decided not to wait hours until the next tour. Instead, we chose to soak in the beauty of the castle from the outside and hike around it for the “killer” spot to “get the shot.” Little did we know what we were in for…

Truth is: IT WAS TREACHEROUS! In order to truly do the castle justice, one must be far away to capture the epic view of the spiral peaks, architecture and mountains surrounding. This meant walking, climbing and hiking. If you do try to search out this spot that Curtis and I found up in the woods, do take someone with you to help you up and down the sides of the steep mountain side! I do repeat, it is tricky and a little dangerous. However, my 6’7” guy and I decided to take on the challenge. First, one has to pass the castle on the right when at the entrance, and go up a little hill to then cross a rather rickety wooden bridge—this gave me a mild panic attack as there were WAY too many tourists standing and loitering on this man-made bridge. Things like this make me sweat bullets. There was even a number counting system that alerted: No More Persons than 250! Needless to say, no one was quite adhering to this rule. Curtis and I conga-lined through the mass of tourists on the bridge, and when you looked down, there were inch wide slits between the soddened wooden boards exposing the depths—Yikes! Then, the hiking up the mountain side began.

Do Note: It was very cold outside and I have been wearing my gown from H&M the entire time. The 30 minute walk up to the castle invited many onlookers to scoff at my strange outfit choice. The muddy after rain climb in sneakers and a taffeta dress was a sight to behold. Luckily, Curtis stood by my side, held my hand and stared down everyone in return. Find yourself a man that will do the ridiculous with you. So, we are hiking and climbing, while noticing small rest stops have less and less tourists as the danger looms more and more heavily. Finally, Curtis shouts, “I see the spot! The perfect Instagram spot!” I breathed a sigh of relief because I stopped feeling my fingers and toes ages ago. He was right, we found the perfect little cove cut out over looking the infamous castle of every little girls’ dreams. Only thing was, I had to hoist myself up by some trees and twigs to get to it, but it was very worth it. Curtis joked, “Your creative director is ready!” I threw my jacket and sweater off and we took about 1000 pictures on my new Iphone 11 pro max. Shout out to the new wide angle lense!

We got so many gorgeous shots paying homage to Neuschwanstein Castle, and I am so pleased, but the most wonderful part of the entire trip was experiencing the hilarious trials and tribulations getting there. It really was a trust building exercise and we were watched by others in amazement that two people were so crazy to climb a mountain, one in a gown, to get a fabulous shot. Sure, we may be crazy, but we had a heck of a lot of fun. And that’s what matters in my book.

I got to live out a little fairy tale moment with my Prince Charming.
I could not be a more happy or lucky gal!

Xo, A