Rick Steves says to get to the King's Castles well before your appointed entry time, as it "takes a while" to get up to the castles. Anyone know how long is "a while"? We'll be taking a bus from Fussen, which only takes about 10 minutes. The bus drops off at the ticket office (we will pre-purchase our tx).
Thank you!
Tracy
I would recommend (and we budgeted) an hour and a half, more if you decide to walk UP the hill. (if you walk, budget 45 minutes just to walk up and you should be there 15 minutes before your tour time.)
From the ticket office, you will walk over to where the shuttle bus meets. If you catch the bus immediately, you'll have plenty of time. If the bus comes later, then you are cutting down on that hour and a half leeway. The shuttle bus ride is maybe 10-15 minutes.
The bus takes you up above the castle and you walk DOWN to the entrance. probably a 15 minute walk because you will stop every 50 feet to take a picture.
If the bus gets you there with ample time, from where the bus lets you off you can walk to the Marienbrūke, the bridge above the castle and get some wonderful pictures. budget 15-30 minutes for that, depending on how fast you walk.
You might want to be in front of the castle a minimum of 20 minutes before. At 15 minutes before, they will let in the ticket holders for the next tour into the inner courtyard. There are electronic gates inside the courtyard and exactly when your tour is scheduled according to the digital clock, those gates will let you scan your ticket and you enter and then you go and find your Guide for the tour.
All this for a mediocre 30 minute tour of N'stein Palace? Actually, the outside is more impressive. And I did enjoy the other castle/palace, Hohenschwangau more, as it was actually lived in and the guided tour was better.
The palace grounds are spread out and involve lot of walking. There's a lot of walking even when using the bus to go up. Sometimes there is a long line and long wait for the bus. And once the bus drops you off, there's still a short walk.
Scheduling both castles/palaces can be tricky getting the timed entries to coordinate. It's pretty much a full day activity.
If this is a life-time dream, then go, it's worth it for you, enjoy, but be aware of the realities on the ground. Safe travels!
When we visited this summer, one bus was broken down, so it was taking a LOT longer to get everyone up to the drop off point. Give yourself plenty of time. I think we were there about 1.5 hours ahead of our entry. Keep in mind that the bus drop off point is still about a 15 minute walk from the castle. You will also want to walk to the bridge to get a photo from there. If you find that you are there in plenty of time, you can do that before visiting the castle.
I had read some people's opinions ahead of our visit that they thought the castle isn't impressive or isn't worth it. So I was ready to be unimpressed. In reality, I really liked it! As long as you understand what it is, and what it isn't, go and enjoy it!
It may not be the largest castle in Europe, but Neuschwanstein impressed Walt Disney so much that he used it as the model for the amusement park’s Sleeping Beauty castle.
The setting of the castle is incredible. The interior of the castle—with its beautifully carved ceilings, artwork re-creating scenes from Wagner’s operas, and the swan boat floating on the water of the grotto— has truly fantastic features like no other castle anywhere.
Would you all recommend visiting the museum too? Seems like it might make for a very long day, but my husband has a hard time passing up museums....we plan on visiting both castles, btw.
Thanks,
Tracy
It may not be the largest castle in Europe, but...
(Taking a linguistic/cultural detour here...)
It may not be a castle at all (and the same applies to its neighbor, Hohenschwangau) to Europeans. It is only the English-language's lack of precision when it comes to this type of building that we now refer to it as a "castle."
The Germans (and Neuschwanstein IS in Germany, after all!) as well as the Austrians and the Swiss refer to N'stein as Schloß Neuschwanstein, and Schloß, if you are curious, is German for "palace."
Schloß is not to be confused with their word for a real castle, ( which is Burg) and which refers to a building from the Middle Ages that was constructed for the main purpose of defense from invaders. Think thick heavy walls, turrets, bows and arrows, catapults, maybe boiling oil, etc.
A Burg was not designed for living in the kind of luxury that Bavarian King Ludwig II came to expect in the late 19th century (around the same time when skyscrapers were going up in Chicago,) so German speakers would never refer to N'stein as a Burg. It is a Schloß, hands down.
When they say "Schloß", they mean what we think of as a palace. When they say "Burg" they mean traditional medieval castle (or ruined castle.)
The only time Germans can't decide which word is right is when a palace has been built on top of Burg, which has taken place here and there, but there is no confusion at all about Neuschwanstein, which despite its fake castle facade, is a Schloß for sure.
Always good to know what you are actually seeing, I think, and to know how the locals see such things as well.
I find it hypocritical for Russ to badmouth Neuschwanstein for not actually being a castle while simultaneously promoting the Reichsburg, in Cochem, which was a chateau, not even a Schloss. The Reichsburg was built in the late 1800s, about the same time as Neuschwanstein as as the home for a wealthy Berlin businessman on the site of a previous castle destroyed by Napolean in the early 1800s.
I think the main point is that Neuschwanstein is a beautiful edifice, built by an eccentric king to look like a knight's castle of the middle ages. As long as you don't believe that it is a medieval castle, what's wrong with admiring it as a beautiful building (and it does resemble a "castle" better than some actual castles).
Russ also promotes Herrenchiemsee, a palace (not a castle) built on a lake by Lugwig to resemble the center part of the Versailles palace outside Paris..
If you want to see an actual castle, see Burghausen or Harburg. Those buildings were built around a thousand years ago as actual defensive castles.
Community Guidelines number 2
Be unfailingly polite. Comments that contain inappropriate language, harshly criticize, or disrespect others' opinions are not allowed. New travelers should be shown extra patience. If you can't write politely, this forum is not for you.
My N'stein post on this thread was penned not to bad-mouth N'stein but to inform others about the nature of this very unique building, one that might LOOK like a castle and is DUBBED a "castle" by the English language... but in fact is NOT a genuine castle in the eyes of German-speakers (or the German-speaking individuals who designed and built it.)
That said, Lee is correct that I have routinely "bad-mouthed" N'stein elsewhere; I do this not because it falls into the "palace" category, but instead because of its overpriced, overcrowded tour and its general lack of historic importance/significance - and especially as a day-trip from Munich (5 hours round-trip, most of a day spent on a half-hour tour??) It is not worth the trouble, the time, and the expense, IMO, when compared with other similar buildings (like Nymphenburg, Herrenchiemsee and Reichsburg, all of which were more interesting, significant experiences for me, and for most travelers have more convenient locations.) I have also often said this: if you happen to be staying in Füssen for other reasons anyway, and you know what N'stein is and isn't, and you still have the urge, the time, and the cash to see it, great. It's your trip, of course.
Where Lee errs: My clear lack of enthusiasm for N'stein is NOT based on the fact that it is not a real castle. It's a weak choice for the reasons stated above. But I do bring this fact up fairly often for the simple reason that so many North American visitors have N'stein in their sights but are often uninformed of this fact thanks to the way English calls everything a castle. And IMO, the wise traveler should know a few basic facts about this place prior to selecting a tour date months in advance, paying for the reservations (not cancellable) and paying the ticket service fee... especially if they are locked into a long day trip from Munich.
One of N'stein's lead tour guides who was interviewed a few years back by Deutsche Welle was discussing the expectations that foreign tourists from different countries. He explained that Americans often come to the N'stein tour with the image of a perfect castle from the Middle-Ages in their heads - and that they are shocked when he tells them that construction was terminated in 1896, (about a decade after Karl Benz offered his first motorcar to the public.) If you're hoping to take an "armored-knights-on-steeds" and "cannonballs" kind of tour of a real medieval castle, you will surely find N'stein lacking - and preventing disappointment is the point here.
