134. The Romantic Road & Neuschweinstein Castle

Where: Bavaria, Germany
When: August 8 - 11, 2013
With: Dave

The culmination of our road trip through Germany was a drive along the Romantic Road. Starting in Würzburg and ending in Füssen, this road takes you on a stunning journey through Bavaria. As you meander along 220 miles of highway, you can take in any of the 22 villages along the way with their the half-timbered houses and brauhaus' of beer, all while the foothills of the Alps slowly grow into snow-capped peaks around you. 

We started our drive at the north end of the route, in Würzburg. One of the more bustling towns on the road, this city was home to large churches, a hilltop fortress, and rows of vineyards.  

While its pedestrian town center was beautiful and there were lots of sites to see, the main attraction was the Residenz. Built in the early 1700s, it is one of the grandest palaces in Germany. 

Filled with gorgeous rooms that were all painted to impress highly esteemed guests, this was an amazing structure. The entranceway alone contains one of the world's largest frescoes on its ceiling, which when coupled with the impressively carved staircase underneath, makes for one heck of a first impression for arriving visitors. (My first and last photo in here...I was yelled at shortly after taking this.)

Behind the palace, the gardens were equally as impressive. With a separate Italian, French and English section, it was serene and beautifully planned. 

After properly exploring this first city, it was time to hit the road and officially begin our journey on the Romantic Road. Armed with a loose itinerary of the towns along the way, we set off. However, we immediately encountered one of our few complaints of this drive: they need to do a better job of marking the start of the road! While there are these handy, brown signs all along the route, they can make you go in circles since they don't indicate whether you're taking the road north or south. A roundabout was a nightmare if we didn't pay close attention to the GPS. 

On the road, we drifted along, weaving in and out of tiny towns. We didn't make any long stops on the first day, but we took every detour to at least drive through each town on the route. I throughly enjoyed pronouncing each one we went through: Tauberbischofscheim, Lauda-Königshofen, Bad Mergentheim, Weikersheim, Röttengen, and Creglingen. Each one was small, sleepy and adorable. 

Our first leg of the trip was complete when we reached Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Easily  the coolest city we'd seen yet on the road, this place had a great history. There were two key events in its past that preserved this medieval town in its 17th century glory. But more on that later. 

Our hotel was incredibly adorable. It was like a fairy tale cottage, with thick woodbeams and low ceilings. It was like a home for gnomes.

The town was so stinkin' cute, I couldn't handle it. Like a fake Christmas village without the snow, it was filled with adorable buildings and weaving cobblestone lanes. 

After a quick spin around the main town center, we quickly picked up that there was a new dessert to try! These handheld pastries could be filled with a variety of fun and delicious things (like fruit or chocolate), but are ultimately covered in powdered sugar. This gives them the appropriate name of Shneebälle, which is German for "snowball".

To orient ourselves with the town, obtain a little history, and because Dave is obsessed with ghost tours, we jumped on the Night Watchmen's Tour. We followed Hans Georg Baumgartner as he walked us through the city in the traditional night watchmen garb of centuries past while telling us the history of the role. The night watchmen were meant to keep the people of Rothenberg safe at night, strolling the streets and sounding their horn at any sign of danger. Despite this important role, they were regarded as one of the "lowest" professions in the city (the only professions considered worse were executioners and gravediggers). 

The funniest part about our guide was that he was definitely drunk while giving the tour. As if it wasn't obvious by the mildly slurred words throughout his speech, we saw him later in the pub throwing back many a drink.

The pub we ended up at after the tour was called Zur Höll. This scarily translates to "to hell" and has been here since the 900s. Apparently this street used to be the first in the town that lost the light of day, giving it the look like it's on the edge of the underworld. Given the lighting of the sky that evening as we entered for a drink, this didn't feel like a farfetched name. 

Inside, while we meant to only stop for one glass of wine, the atmosphere of this old structure was too appealing to leave. The wine was served in old, clay jugs, and candlelight was the only light source. We had fun taking devilish photos from the tiny crawlspace under the stairs where our table sat. 

Feeling brave after emerging from the depths of hell and half blasted with wine, we decided a "fun" way to get home was atop the city walls. Encircling the entire city, the wall is about 3o feet high and is topped with a covered walkway. While in the daytime, this can be a beautiful way to see the city from above, in the dead of night, it was terrifying. There was NO lighting along the way, and since it was covered, there were long stretches of pitch black darkness. We shrieked and darted, but obviously didn't do the sensible thing and GET OUT. This is how people end up dead in horror films. Obviously my photos couldn't do it justice, but I took a few with flash to show exactly how I made it through: by clinging to the back of Dave's shirt. 

The next day we were able to explore the town...in broad daylight this time. Our first stop was to this home, probably the most photographed in Rothenburg. Referred to as "little square", the charming building is flanked by two streets of alternating height that run out to the city gates and provide a lovely little photo. 

Venturing outside of the city walls, the landscape around the city was beautiful. Lush trees and farmland surrounded this hilltop fortress. This leads me to explain the first time Rothenburg was saved and preserved. 

Rothenburg was a wealthy town back in the day as it sat at the crossroads of several major trade routes. During the Thirty Years' War (fought between Protestants and Catholics in the early 1600s), an army surrounded the city walls and demanded to take refuge inside. The town attempted to defend itself, but was no match against the 40,000 troops that forced their way in. Despite being a city of wealth, the inhabiting armies depleted Rothenburg of its supplies and food over the long winter, leaving the town a shell of its former glory. Shortly thereafter, the Black Plague swept in and killed several more people. 

I know. This doesn't sound like Rothenburg was saved persay; however, these two consecutive events stopped the growth of the town, leaving it preserved in its 17th century state. If it's wealth had remained abundant through the years, we could be standing on top of a huge Berlin-like city right now!

The second time the city was spared was a really cool story involving two lucky breaks. During World War II, the Allies knew that several Nazis were stationed in this town as it was considered "ideally German". While the Allies were bombing towns left and right around the country, the General of the US army ordered that no artillery was used on this particular town. Why? When he was a kid, his mother had a painting of Rothenburg that he loved.  He knew of its beauty and wanted it preserved. This was Rothenburg's first stroke of luck. 

On the Axis side, Hitler had ordered his officers to "fight to the death" against the Allies when defending their posts. However, the commanding officer in charge of Rothenburg was traveling when the Allies came knocking, and his second-in-command was like screw that.  He headed out to meet the Allies on this bridge and surrender Rothenburg, and the town now remains a time capsule of 17th century life. 

Back in the town walls, we next ventured into one of Rothenburg's odder museums: the Medieval Crime Museum. Filled with an extensive collection of hand written doctrines of law from all over Germany, spanning centuries, as well as the punishment devices used to serve the crimes, this was a mildly disturbing museum. But interesting, nonetheless. 

We couldn't get enough of the town, so we continued to stroll and enjoy the colorful buildings, quaint side streets and quirky shop windows. 

One of the main buildings in Rothenburg is the St. James church. Built in the 14th century, it was a main stop on the pilgramage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. While it was a pretty standard Lutheran church, it had lots of interesting sculptures both inside and outside. 

The most unique item in the church is a large wooden altarpiece, carved to show the Last Supper, dating from the early 1500s. In addition to being an impressively intricate carving, the cool thing about this was the removable Judas, so that your Last Supper scene could come with or without the traitorous member of the pack. 

Our final activity in the town was a walk around the city walls. In the daytime, it was a much more enjoyable (though far less thrilling) experience. It also made us appreciate how insane we were to attempt this buzzed in the dark. 

The views of the city from the walls were pretty great. Looking out, you could see the tops of all the adorable medeival homes, as well as their tiled rooftops.

All along the walls, names and countries were carved. These are sponsors who donated money after World War II to repair the historic city walls. 

Finally, we dragged our feet to get into the car and carry on to see the next leg of the Romantic Road. While Rothenburg was incredible, we started to look forward to what more the trip had in store. Already, the countryside was becoming far more scenic. 

We didn't have to go too far to make it to our next stop, the town of Dinkelsbühl. Another walled city, this one had a picturesque moat surrounding it. 

Inside the city, while the colorful, half-timbered houses were becoming familiar sites, they never got old. We could have just strolled down these streets all day, particularly as there was practically no one there. 

This town had lots of great artwork on the sides of the buildings, giving an extra little bonus when you took a turn down a random side street. 

The stop wouldn't be complete without popping into a little brauhaus for a half pint of some weissbier. We were the only people in this sleepy little place, except for the very large Frau who was ironing the linens behind the bar.  

We took a quick stop in St. George's minster, another stop on the same pilgrimage to Spain. Homage is paid to those pilgrims with the carvings on the pews: seashells are the symbols of pilgrims. 

Done with Dinkelsbuhl? Dave says "fin!"

The next town on the road was Nördlingen. Another small Bavarian town, there were two things that make this one unique. One was its naturally defensive position, sitting in a crater created by a meteor 15 million years ago. Being Germany, they built a big wall around the edge of the crater, and voila, protection. 

The second attraction is the very large church steeple that gives a gorgeous view of the town and countryside below. Ninety meters and several, several, stairs up to the top, the views are totally worth it when you get there. 

A wise advisory at the top of the steeple. 

After dinner, it was time to finish the second leg of the road for the night. As the sun went down and the terrain became more hilly, the scenes were gorgeous. We stopped for a couple photos in the next town of Harburg, home to a castle on a hilltop.

This was probably my favorite stretch of the trip. The orange light from the sunset, plus a slight mist that settled in the hills around us made such a peaceful and serene scene. 

We had one more town to drive through, Donauwörth, before reaching our final stop of the night, Augsburg. While having tons of interesting sites dating back to the Roman ages, this was also the first real city that we'd come across since we'd left Berlin. It was kind of lacking in character,  with busy, car-lined streets, loud students, and just your regular bars. We walked the main street, but after a bit, took advantage of an early night. 

The next morning, we got up early to get the heck out of Augsburg, and continue on our final leg of the road. This was when the drive became really exciting because the snow-capped peaks of the Alps started to creep up on the horizon. 

As we drove this final stretch, we started to notice these funny little posts in the villages. Almost every town we passed had one. Apparently, back in the day, these maypoles were like the billboards of a town. Each spoke displays a carving that demonstrates the local crafts and industries of the village. If you were wandering Bavaria and had a trade, you could pass a town and immediately tell if your services would be useful. 

We went fairly quickly through the last few towns, Landsberg, Schongau, and Pfaffenwinkel, and made our next stop at this lovely site, Wieskirche. Originally home to a simple church, all was changed when a statue of the "Scourged Savior" was seen crying by local worshippers. Suddenly, this tranquil place became a major pilgrimage site meriting the building of a far more grand church.

Grand was a bit of a understatement. The inside of this church is one of the greatest examples of Rococo, a style that is known for being over the top and gaudy. Quite the surprising inside compared to the fairly simple and natural surroundings outside. 

Fairly quickly after leaving Wieskirche, we made it to our final destination of the day, the town of Schwangau. As you approach the town, nestled between a large valley and the start of the Alps, are two of Germany's most famous castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschweinstein. 

Both castles overlook a stunning lake that cuts through the mountains. Clear and turquoise, this was a stunning view. 

The town of Schwangau was more like a giant ticket office offering tours to the two castles. All the buildings here were either restaurants, hotels or gift shops. At least they were all picturesque. 

We were lucky we got there when we did! Apparently, if you don't pre-book your tickets for the castles, you've got to wait in a VERY long line (as in, 2 hours long) to get tickets for one of the specific tour times to enter the castles. We almost got squeezed out from the very last tour of the day, and we had gotten in line at 11am! So word of caution, book ahead!

We were booked first on the Hohenschwangau tour. This castle was built in the 1800s by King Maximiillian II of Bavaria and served as his official summer residence. Between the whimsical paintings that cover the walls and the gorgeous surroundings, it was like being in a fairytale. 

When King Maximillian II died, his son, Ludwig, became the king of Bavaria at the age of 19. With the world at his fingertips and a crown on his head, Ludwig decided it was time to start building his own dream castle. He decided his castle would be everything he'd imagined while reading fairytales as a child. And that was how Neuschweinstein was started. While living in his father's castle, he began construction, keeping a close eye on its progress from a telescope that still sits in Hohenschwangau. 

On the long, uphill trek up to Neuschweinstein, the views on the valley below are simply stunning.

 

Neuschweinstein is the modern day inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle. As we approached, it's funny to see it and feel like you're in Anaheim, CA rather than Germany. 

Given that feeling, I thought this shirt the only appropriate one to wear. 

The castle took Ludwig almost his whole, short life to complete. After 17 years, he was finally able to move his residence to Neuschweinstein. Sadly, after only 172 days living in his beloved castle, a series of strange events occurred. Ludwig was declared insane by the government and immediately seized from his castle. The next day, while in the hands of authorities, he went on a walk with the psychologist that diagnosed him. That was the last the two men were seen alive again. They were both found the next day, drowned in the lake by which they were walking. How he died has been the source of much controversy and conspiracy, and he was forevermore referred to as Mad King Ludwig. 

The interior of the castle was never completely finished; however, the parts that were done were as over the top as you'd imagine. Containing several rooms, many with ornate decor, I can only imagine what it would have looked like if Ludwig had lived to complete his masterpiece. 

Standing on the balcony of his castle and looking at the views, I could only imagine the joy this place gave him. 

A trail leads from the back of the castle towards the gorge that sits beside it. Over this gorge sits a steel frame bridge that provides incredible views of the castle and surrounding valley.  However, you're almost better off if you don't see the bridge before you cross it. 

The bridge was...terrifying. Shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of unruly tourists on a 150 year old bridge sitting 90 meters over a gorge that swayed with each running child. The fury to get a photo of this stunning site caused mayhem. One woman actually stuck her foot out to trip anyone that passed. On a bridge....90 meters....in the air. 

However, we luckily caught a break between tour buses and it wasn't as awful to cross the bridge as we anticipated (we just didn't look down through the wobbly planks of wood under our feet). The views were worth braving the evil bridge!

Crossing the bridge to the other side, a trail leads down to the bottom of the gorge. Looking up, the bridge looked even more terrifying.

We enjoyed a lovely little hike through the gorge back to the main village. 

 

One part of the walkway was nothing more than a few planks nailed to the side of the rock face. That was an interesting part of the hike. 

 Back in town, we had a lovely last German dinner of wienerschnitzel and bier, and enjoyed the views of the castles from our balcony. 

The next morning, we got up early, and decided to take a hike back up to the bridge since the lighting on the castle would be so much better. Thanks, Dave, for braving the heights again so I could get the photos I wanted!

The time had then come to close out the Romantic Road with the last town on the route: Füssen. We started off with a last German meal in a pub complete with steins, liederhosen and bibs. 

The town of Füssen was a gorgeous end to the tour. Situated on the Lech River, this had been a major port town since the Roman times. 

While wandering the town, look what we stumbled upon! The OFFICIAL end of the Romantic Road. How appropriate!

An incredible road trip to close out our last vacation as European residents. A big thank you to the Ford Focus / Turdmobile that got us through the trip. Same color as the sign!