Saturday.

Up at 4:00am and one final sweep of the room, and we were out of there by 5:15am waiting for our transport to take up to the Malpensa airport as were leaving Milan for Munich at 8:40, would you believe we got the same driver that picked us up
Check in then through security and duty free, this time I shopped, once it was time to leave we were all held for awhile and shuffled onto to a bus and driven for some distance on the Tarmac until we reached our plane, we were flying Lufthansa to Munich, only a 90 minute flight, flew over a mountain range that were literally covered in snow, a truly beautiful scene, leaving the airport we took the train to Munich Central station and then to purchase tickets to Fussen as we had tickets booked for Sunday to tour the castle,

Arriving in the town we had a battle to find our hotel and after a few missed turns and Chrissy nearly loosing the plot, eventually found it and booked in, then out the door to explore the town, Fussen is a Bavarian town just north of the Austrain border, a small town with a population of approx 15 thousand and a sunny day and it is truly a beautiful town clean, buildings well maintained in the old tradition and crowds like you wouldn't believe, lunch, then back to the hotel for a rest, later on we went in search for dinner and headed for an Asian restaraunt, big mistake! I ordered, pork and lemon grass and Chrissy ordered chicken and rice, an enormous amount of food that was salty you could just barely eat it I suspect they used a lot of MSG, we tried but eventually gave up and left and just headed back to the motel.
Sunday

Up early and packed and left the motel to lock our cases away in the lockers at the station and a much needed coffee and breakfast sitting outside a bakery with the best views looking at the mountains around us, we had a tour of the castle arranged and had to be at the booking office before 8:45 and then into cars to be taken up to the castle, this was a small group of about 20 people and the tour guide, upon arriving at the foot of the mountain we were transferred to a bus and taken to the top, first a walk to the bridge overlooking the river and castle and then a long winding walk around the mountain to the castle, spectacular views all the way, finally arriving at the base of the castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th century Romanesque Revival Palace on a rugged hill above the village, the palace was commissioned by Ludwig 11 of Bavaria as a retreat and Ludwig paid for the palace out of his own personal fortune, the castle was intended as a home for the king until he died in 1886. the castle was still incomplete when Ludwig died and of the 200 rooms planned only 15 rooms and hallways were completed, Ludwig only lived in the castle for a total of 172 day

The castle has 1.3 million visitors per year and in the peak season June to August the castle has an average of 6000 visitors per day, the castle can only be visited during a 35 minute guided tour and no photgraphy is allowed,

The tour was very interesting and the finished rooms spectacular, the views from the castle was like no other, we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience

After spending some time around the castle we then headed back to the meeting point, now the walk to the castle was all down hill so that means to go back you are walking uphill and it is a killer, taken the bus down to the township, it just blew our minds just how big the crowd had grown, there was massive lineups to purchase tickets, food outlets and souvenir shops just chaotic, so our advice if this is on your wish list "Go early' we caught the bus back to Fussen

Fussen is a Bavarian town just north of the Austrian border and is known for its voilin and lute making industries. the Neuschwanstein Castle lies southwest of the town

Fussen's pedestrianised old town is a pretty blend of brightly coloured buildings many of which are adorned with frescoes, the typical bavarian architecture and cobblestone streets gives the town an old world charm although the town is 700 years old. keeping watch over the town is the Hohes Schloss (High Castle) once the summer residence of the Lord Bishop of Augsberg

The town has a population of 15 thousand or more.

Finally collected our luggage got our train tickets back to Munich, and finally booked into our hotel and crashed for a few hours sleep and then headed out to look for dinner.