Fussen, Germany

This weekend we drove three hours east to the German town of Fussen, which sits on the far southern end of Germany, right next to the Austrian border. The area sits in the German Alps. You can find it circled in red on the map below. It was funny driving there. We drove through Switzerland, ran parallel to Lichtenstein, skirted through Austria, and then ended up in Germany. The kids thought that was pretty neat.


Anyway, our main purpose of the trip was to see the world famous castle "Neuschwanstein Castle," which sits in this bavarian area. Construction on the castle first began in 1868 by King Ludwig. Ludwig is sometimes referred to as the "Mad King," but others just say he was eccentric and fanciful. But no matter what you may think of Ludwig the castle is pretty stunning. As you can tell in the pictures there was some renovation work being done on the far end of the castle. In some of my pictures you can make out some scaffolding. Anyway, we took a short tour inside, which is lavishly decorated with murals, gold plated silver decorations, and classic medieval architecture. Pictures are not allowed inside, so I wasn't able to use my camera, but I'm sure you can find some online somewhere. The castle is also the inspiration behind "Cinderella's Castle" at Disney's Magic Kingdom.

We also toured "Hohenschwangau Castle," which sits near Neuschwanstein, and is the childhood home of Ludwig. The castle was built by Ludwig's father, King Maximillian II beginning in 1833. It was built on the remains of a ruined fortress, which dated back to the 12th century. The castle isn't as picturesque as Neuschwanstein, but it seems to have more history.

Anyway, we enjoyed our time in this area. The scenery is beautiful, and the castles were pretty incredible. To us, it felt like Colorado all over again...only with castles.