Christmas Markets and Fairytale Castles - Day 2 - Linderhof Palace and Neuschwanstein Castle

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Today we were up at around 6:00am - it takes me a long time to get ready and our tour was leaving at 8:30am so plenty of time!

We get ready, make sure cameras, phones, iPads are charged and that we have our breakfast packed and head down to the lobby for a coffee and to use the free wifi.

At around 8:00am we leave the hotel and arrived outside the Karstadt department store which is where all the buses pick up for tours. There was already tons of people here, a bus and a half full already. I was starting to worry thinking we wouldn’t fit on when another bus arrives and one of the tour guides tells us to go on that one. I think it worked out in our favour as this was a brand new bus doing it’s first ever tour and it was half full which meant we could spread out a little bit.

Our tour guide was Ana, she was fantastic!

We leave Munich at 8:30am and are on our way. After about a 30 minute or so drive, we start to see mountains in the background. I got so excited! Our first stop was the Bavarian town of Oberammergau.




I loved the traditional Bavarian houses and buildings with paintings on the side.





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Ana explains that there is a theatre here that performs the passion of the christ every 10 years for 5 hours a day during the summer, and that people come from all over the world to see it. “A tradition which dates back to 1633 when the community was spared the ravages of the plague”

She also tells us that the monks at the monastery here makes their own “holy schnapps”. Jayme buys some for his friend back in Arizona. I spend €30 on magnets and postcards, only to then leave them all on the bus!

The bus dropped us off outside of a gift shop. Here is where we also bought two steins, I got one for me that says “Oberammergau” and one for Jayme for Christmas. Luckily I did NOT leave these on the bus. These steins were half the price they were in the main part of Munich. I think they were between €20 and €25 each where as in the main square they would’ve been €40-€45.








We only had 40 minutes here, which sounds like a long time but it really wasn’t. The bus dropped us at the very edge of the town and it was only as we were heading back to the bus that we found the main road in the town and I was disappointed because there were so many cute little coffee shops and gift shops that I had no time to look in. If you’re doing a tour here, make sure you find the main area quite early on.

We get back on the bus and eat our fruit and pastries that we got in Lidl the day before and off we go to Linderhof Palace.

Once we arrive at Linderhof Palace, Ana goes and buys our tickets then tells us our tour time is in 20 minutes time, so we check out the gift shop. I buy yet another magnet, which I kept in my pocket all day long so I still have this one, yay!

Then we walk down towards the Palace, I spot a swan and give him a stroke, he was cool!



We carry on towards the Palace and take some photographs outside. It’s a really nice clear warm sunny day, so much so that it was hard to get pics at certain angles because I couldn’t see anything.




The Palace itself is actually very small. This is the only one of King Ludwigs Palaces that is fully finished. We head inside for our tour. The rooms in the Palace are decorated similarly to that of Versailles in France. King Ludwig loved the French and got a lot of inspiration from them, including ostrich feathers.





Every room has it’s own colour scheme. It was very OTT but I still found it very beautiful.

Next we were off back to the bus and making our way to the town of Schwangau where Neuschwanstein is.

As we were getting nearer I spotted the castle in the distance and was surprised at how low down in the mountains it actually was. In the photographs you see online it looks SO high up but it’s walkable.




I was getting super excited at this point. I’ve wanted to visit this place for as long as I can remember and couldn’t believe I finally was!

Ana gave us our tickets for the castle and a time sloT to enter the castle. We had about an hour to kill until then, so we wandered around taking photos then went into the Hotel Muller restaurant.

I just love Bavarian architecture!



Once inside I ordered another Helles, Jayme went for the King Ludwig Dunkel. I ordered the veal weinerschnitzel and Jayme had the deer with cranberry and gingerbread sauce (or something!)





Statue of King Ludwig with his swan. Neuschwanstein means “new-swan-stone”



Our table was not too far from the window, where you got a great view of the castle.



The food was amazing! I would definitely recommend this place for anyone who’s planning on visiting.

After dinner we then decide to skip the horse carriages as there’s a long line and walk up instead. If you have more time the walk isn’t so bad, but when you haven’t it’s actually quite hard! It wasn’t the hardest walk but it was by no means easy.




The castle slowly started to appear from behind the trees. You get some really beautiful views from up here.




I guess you could say it’s a little bit bigger than the Sleeping Beauty castle






This was the only photo I got in the castle, photography is strictly forbidden, as I found out!



The castle inside is actually very similar to that of sleeping beauty and cinderella castles. Right down to this cool little room that was sort of like a cave? A man made cave, I would've loved to have gotten photos in here because it was just magical. Reminded me of not only BTMRR but the little cave part of the Paris Sleeping Beauty castle where the dragon lives.

At the end of the tour there is a really cool scaled down model of the castle




Unfortunately the Marienbrucke bridge was closed So I didn’t manage to get any photographs from a distance. It sucks because thats where you get the most iconic views from. But never mind, just another reason to come back.





We take our last few pictures and head back down, on the way we buy some quark balls! These are sort of like donuts, except its quark inside which is sort of like a cream cheese. They were good but not amazing, I’m glad I tried them though.




Sorry - didn't get any photos of the quark balls as we ate them so fast.

I got some photos of Hohenschwangau Castle, which was King Ludwig II's childhood home.



When we got to the bottom we had some time until we needed to be back at the bus. So we checked out the little christmas market by the lake. The little lake at the bottom was just so beautiful, especially with the sun just setting.





We grabbed a coffee to go and got back to our bus. It was around 5:45-ish by now. We were worn out, slept on the way back.

We arrived back in Munich at around 19:00pm and decided to have a look around the Karstadt department store. We went downstairs to the food section, and I bought my nan some german chocolates and my cousins a chocolate santa each and made sure to get my mum some authentic German stollen.

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cont.
We head into Oberpollinger quickly and I spot some expensive Dirndl and fall in love again!


I browse around Douglas makeup store, it was amazing but I didn’t buy anything. It’s sort of like their version of sephora.



I take a photo of C&A because I find it amazing they still have these in Europe.



We check out the Frauenkirche church, which is sort of like the main symbol for Munich and according to our tour guide no buildings in the city can be higher than this. A cool thing about this cathedral that I wished I’d known before hand is that it is has something inside called the Devils Footprint.



Here's a brief description from wikipedia:

"An attraction that survived is the Teufelstritt, or Devil's Footstep, at the entrance. This is a black mark resembling a footprint, which according to legend was where the devil stood when he curiously regarded and ridiculed the 'windowless' church that Halsbach had built."

The tower on the right is currently being refurbished so that you can walk to the top and have a unique view of the city.

Then just opposite is another Augstiner beer hall, so we go in… Zwei Helles Bitte (please tell me that's good German because that's what we ordered lol) And a pretzel to share.





The beer was good again as was the pretzel. We call it a night and head back to the hotel. In bed by about 10:30pm-ish.

[Gunna]

Would love to visit Neuschwanstein castle - we visited the Black Forest this year, another very beautiful part of Germany with some lovely villages - just a bit to far to see this castle but like the idea of linking with a trip to Munich.

[Guest]

Great day, looks so pretty! Thank you so much for taking the time to write!

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Originally Posted by Gunna

Would love to visit Neuschwanstein castle - we visited the Black Forest this year, another very beautiful part of Germany with some lovely villages - just a bit to far to see this castle but like the idea of linking with a trip to Munich.

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Oh I'd love to visit the black forest!

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Originally Posted by princess_chazy

Great day, looks so pretty! Thank you so much for taking the time to write!

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I hope it helps with your planning

You'll be able to get views from the bridge when you go!

[Guest]

Beautiful photos thanks for posting.

[EJSakaAnna]

What a beautiful place to visit! Sounds like you had a lovely day, thanks for writing

[bonnies mum]

Thanks for your brilliant report and photos. DH & I visited these 2 places on our honeymoon (39 years ago). Remember how beautiful they were but loved your reminder.

[Guest]

Boy! You've brought back memories. Linderhof - a pure confection of Imperial madness! Did they take you in the mirror room and shut all the doors? You'd go mad in there.

And beautiful Neuschwanstein - a true fairy castle. You mentioned Sleeping Beauty castle - well, it was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle at Anaheim. Compare the turrets.