Not far over the border, we pulled into a parking lot and hiked a short ways up a mountain, in order to take a look at the Ehrenberg Castle ruins. It was fairly extensive and there were beautiful views on all sides. Additionally, just below the castle, a long bridge was built, connecting the mountain to a nearby mountain that housed a fort. Stephanie went on the bridge, but I did not. I think the pictures will be self explanatory.
Back at our hotel, we had dinner and rested for a bit. At around 8:00, I left to see if I could get a sunset view of Neuschwanstein Castle. It is normally a fairly long hike up the mountain, but I took the more strenuous and direct route, following a rocky path cutting between the roads. The best view of the castle is said to be from Marienbrucke bridge.
I did not expect the bridge to be high. It was not just high. It was very, very, very high. It was also a bit shaky. There were 2 people with tripods set up and a handful of stragglers came and went every so often. At first I would creep out, take a few pictures, and then scurry back to the safety of land. Then, I'd switch to a different lens and do the same thing. I would then go out again in 5 minutes and do the same thing, hoping to catch the different light as the sunrise changed.
I went up to the first guy with a tripod and asked if he understood English. He did. I explained my fear of heights and then scurried off. Eventually, after repeating the on and off method for about 20 minutes, I decided to go up to him and talk. We talked a bit about photography and travel, and I tried to keep distracted. I also made sure to stand on one of the beams, where I feel safer, and dug my right foot into the ground. It was aching, but I didn't want to move or shift. The wind got stronger as the night went on. We were very high up.
When I looked at the pictures on the computer, I realized that there was a small back end to the castle, that I couldn't see from the bridge. It also has scaffolding on it. The first non closeup picture is how I was framing the picture, not realizing that there was a back end. The next two include the back.
I continued talking with the fellow all the way back down the mountain. At the bottom, I took a photo of the other castle in town, Hohenschwangau Castle. I didn't notice it until the next day, but at the top is a white swan. I also exchanged information with the German gentleman, who lives in this very town.
The next morning, we woke up, and went on a tour through Hohenschwangau castle. I wasn't too impressed with the outside of the castle, so here is a picture of a bird that I saw as we were entering.
The tour was slightly interesting. It talked about the two brothers that were raised in the town, Ludwig and Otto. Ludwig went on to build Neuschwanstein, along with a few other castles throughout the country. He was 6'3, which was very tall for the time. He was mysteriously killed in his very early 40s and there was a coverup. They claimed he drowned, but no water was found in his lungs. The castle insides were more beautiful than most of the other castles we have been to. There were also a few secret passageways hidden in the walls, which were pretty neat to see the doors to.
Later in the day, we had a tour scheduled for Neuschwanstein. The only way to get into these castles were through tours, so we had no other option. Back up the mountain I went.
Nothing prepared me for what was in Neuschwanstein Castle. Again, there was no photography allowed, but I checked online, and they show most everything in the castle with a quick search. There were secret passageways, a recreation of the inside of a cave, with stalagtites, a room with a theater stage, a throne room that was absolutely magnificent, and apparently, the first working telephone of Bavaria.
As we were exiting, we were allowed to go down one hallway and take pictures from a balcony. The sight happened to be magnificent at the time. Then, it began to rain, and was still amazing. Jeremy did post-processing work on one of my pictures(To be fair, a made a tiny adjustment to reduce the shadows and reduce some brightness first with the meager tools I have). I will give you a before and after here. The last picture is of when it rained.
We had brought ponchos, so we put them on. The downpour was tremendous. Stephanie wanted to go up to the bridge. I zipped off the lower part of my convertible pants, turning them into shorts so my legs wouldn't get soaked. After a little while, I decided it was too much still, so I went for cover while she went on. After a few minutes I went to rejoin her and we walked down the mountain together.
It continued to rain throughout the night so I stayed in the room. Stephanie went out for a short while and got wet.
No comments:
Post a Comment