Romantic Road

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Romantic Road, Part I, Highways and Castles

November 14, 2001

Dear Family and Friends,

This is the story of the start of our travel on Germany's "Romantic Road". First, some background. The term Romantic Road ("RR" for short) may have been created by some public relations and tourism bureau but the route itself has been around for a long time. It runs from the town of Fussen on the Austrian border through Augsberg to Wurzburg in the north, about 350 kilometers (220 miles). Augsberg was the northern end of Emperor Augustine's "via claudia" which ran all the way back to Rome. North of Augsberg, the RR follows the medieval trade and pilgrimage route up to Wurzberg.

Our guide book lists 26 towns along the way, all of them guaranteed to be historic, charming, hospitable, picturesque, etc., etc. That being the case, it's probably best to spend a month or so covering the 350 kilometers but not even us unemployed have that much time. In our case, we stayed overnight at only two towns and visited a few more so ours was not an exhaustive tour. Unfortunately, we got caught between commitments at the north end and slow progress getting out of Bad Reichenhall and Munich to reach the southern end of the RR. Next time we will either plan better or commit less.

The drive down from Munich was uneventful. We traveled on a bit of autobahn but mostly country roads. As we went farther south, the weather got colder, just enough to make the drizzle turn to snow and the driver turn nervous. I did not want to be experimenting with our anti-skid system because these country roads were not much more than two small car widths and I didn't think landing in a farmer's field would be a positive part of our trip.

Our first goals were the two castles called Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau located in the very small community of Schwangau, just outside Fussen. (Remember these names, there may be a quiz.) Because of the poor visibility, and because we failed to read German signs too well, we missed the Castles on the first try and ended up in a not-too-romantic part of Fussen. Another piece of advice: Travel the RR in better weather than we did. These are "top down" roads with wonderful vistas but in the rain-snow-sleet mixture we had, just reading signs was hard enough.

Eventually, we did glimpse the yellow brick of Hohenschwangau. Eventually we could even make out white Neuschwanstein but just barely. And we had to take it on faith that the Bavarian Alps were the backdrop for both castles.

Another history lesson: Hohenschwangau is a 12th Century castle that was largely abandoned by the 16th Century and destroyed in the Napoleonic wars of 1800 and 1809. A quarter of a century later it was restored by Bavarian King Maximilian II, father of Ludwig II. According to our castle guide, it was a true royal castle and served as a home for Maximilian, Ludwig and their descendents until it was given to the state early in the 20th Century.

Neuschwanstein was started in 1869 by Ludwig and was finished in time to serve as the model for the Cinderella's castle in Disneyworld. Consequently it is the more famous of the two. For just a moment, the skies cleared and we were able to get a shot where the Disney inspiration is clear.

As one can imagine, the castles are not crowded in mid-November sleet and snow. That's generally good. The bad part is that we ended up deciding to tour just a single castle because the interval between infrequent English-speaking tours would have meant a four-hour stay to cover both castles. We opted for Hohenschwangau, less famous but more authentic(?).

We bought our tickets and were assigned to "Tour Group #128". We patiently waited our turn behind the starting gate. This seemed silly with the handful of people touring with us but I suppose that summer crowds make the system mandatory. Maybe this is where Disney learned crowd management too.

Inside, Group #128 was not allowed to take pictures. Darn, how can I show the folks back home? Words will have to serve. In fact, the tour was quite intimate with just five tourists in Group #128. We were led from The Billiard Room, past The Chapel, through The Hall of the Swan-King, into The Queen's Rooms and The King's Rooms. If you are royalty, all the rooms at home get to be capitalized.

The tour lasted less than a half-hour. We left impressed with the lavish gold and silver and bejeweled decorations. This was definitely a royal place. But the stronger impression was that of having just toured the house of real people, if people dead for 100 years can be called "real". The scale of each room was correct for living in. The furniture had been used. The decorations, though lavish because this was after all the home of the Bavarian King, seemed akin to the birthday and holiday gifts we all accumulate "for the house". You know, the plaque from the guys at work when our team won the championship. Kings win battles and wars and were given jewel-encrusted plaques by grateful barons but the sense is the same. Almost the same.

So we left the home of Max and his kid Mad Ludwig. From the town, we looked back and saw an imposing stone castle but we knew it was just a home.

As for the rest of the day, I choose not to tell the story of how once again our plan for a short drive and an early stop went wrong. Two days later, we bought a wonderful little guidebook for The Romantic Road. It shows where the hotels are and why it should not take hours to find one. Another piece of travel advice: buy and read tourist guides before the trip, not after.

Take care. Stay healthy. Invite a king to lunch, they're just folks.

John and Marianne.

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Created November 24, 2001

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