Today (May 17th) was another long adventurous day. We went to Neuschwanstein which is a castle built by King Ludwig II in 1869. However, the castle took years to build and the King mysteriously died during the construction therefore it was never finished. We got there a little early so we were able to relax and take pictures by a beautiful lake with the Alps in the background. Some people started taking their shoes off and walking in the lake so of course I had to join. We spent awhile skipping rocks, but none of the rocks were round or flat. However, after many attempts we managed and I got a few good skips.
Finally we started our hike up to the castle. It was 1 mile uphill, but it was honestly nothing compared to the 399 steps yesterday. The castle was beautiful, it didn’t even look real at first. It looked like we were in a fairytale. We took a few pictures outside and then entered the inside for a tour. Since the castle was unfinished, we could only see a few rooms, but the inside had incredible paintings and architecture. My favorite room was where his throne was supposed to be. It had tall ceilings and a ton of religious paintings around it. There was a large chandelier, but it was lowered to the ground and blocked off. It looked like there was a professional cleaning and possibly restoring the chandelier.
After the tour we went to a nearby village and had lunch and shopped. I noticed almost everyone had electric bikes which is interesting because they are so expensive. But I learned since we were in the Alps there are many mountain biking trails and people most likely rented the bikes. I definitely am going to add that to my bucket list. Also, on our way back to the bus I found the perfect skipping rock! I could’ve used that hours ago.
My day ended without seeing another body of water. We stopped at another church and the inside architecture and paintings were incredible. I unfortunately could not skip my rock, but maybe within the last 2 days of my trip I will get to update you on my perfect skipping rock.
