Munich, Germany

There are really no castle in Munich. There is Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Wittelsbachers, but it hardly qualifies as a castle. The castles of King Ludwig, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein are located in Füssen, about two hours south of Munich. Hohenschwangau was built around 1800 by Lugwig's father, and was where he grew up. Neuschwanstein was a modern fairytale creation build for Ludwig's amusement about the time of the Brooklyn bridge. There is an old castle in Burghausen, east of Munich, on the Austrian border. It was started about 1000 years ago, but it has built onto and added too since then. If you go to Nürnberg, there is an old castle there. Marienberg, above Würzburg was there, I believe, in the 30 years wars of the 16 hundreds. If you go west, to Baden-Württemburg, the Hollenzollern castle of Sigmaringen was started about 1000 years ago and has been built over since then. West of Munich is Harburg, south of Nördlingen, on the Romantic Road, and, in Donauwörth, the ruins of Schloss Mangold, now just a pile of stones. In the Ausserfern valley of the Tirol, south of Füssen, is the ruins of Ehrenburg, just outside of Rick's Reutte and the Walkenstein, just outside of Pfronten, where Ludwig planed to build his next (last) castle. There is a painting of Walkenstein at Neuschwanstein. Both are ruins, with nopublic transportation to them, a considerable hike.

Vicki, If you want to see the "usual" Castles that most tourists visit in that area (Neuschwanstein / Hohenschwangau), you have two choices. You can take the train to Fussen and then local Bus to the Castles. You'll need to book an "appointment" for the official tour of the Castle (Visitors are only admitted according to the time they've booked). The second choice is a day tour with This Tour firm. Travel is still via train & bus, but they make all the arrangements, book the Castle tour and provide a short "background" tour. If you visit Neuschwanstein, be sure to hike up to the bridge across the ravine, as it provides incredible views of the Castle. Happy travels!

All of the castles I mentioned, except Sigmaringen and Ehrenburg, are in Bavaria and can be accessed from Munich by train (and maybe bus) using a Bayern-Ticket (€21 Single, €29 for up to five people). For the castles at Füssen, it is very easy to do. I have a page on my website dedicated to showing you how to get to the castles on your own. The tour charges $50 for one person, $100 for two, for what you can do yourselves for $30 single, $40 for two, and they don't even include castle admission (although they do purchase the ticket, at your cost, for you). Because they buy Bayern-Tickets for the trip, if you wanted to stay longer, you'd have to buy your own tickets back to Munich.

Vicki, Rick Steves' Germany Guidebook has quite a lot of information about several Bavarian castles, how to get to them and what to see. He concentrates a lot of the book on Munich and Bavaria, with a special area just for the castles near Fussen. A worthy investment.