14 December 2005 (Wednesday) – Germany Castles Tour – Linderhof Castle, Oberammergau, Neuschwanstein Castle, Hohenschwangau Castle

I went for the day trip for the Castles Tour that I signed up which cost me €43 just for the transport alone. I have to pay for the entrance fees separately which cost me €13.50 for both Linderhof Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle.

Even though it is slightly more expensive than taking the train, because it is winter now, the castles close earlier and also the shuttle buses from the train station to the castles are less frequent, I would only have time to visit one castle, according to the lady at the tourist information centre. The train ticket costs around €29 return excluding the shuttle buses, which means that the day trip is more than half the price. But then, there is the inconvenience of having to find my way around, keep a lookout on where to alight, change trains etc…and the fact that after so many days of taking the trains, I am pretty sick and tired of relying on myself and wanted to be guided throughout the whole trip. And since I am already there, I wanna see as many sights (the interesting ones only though) as possible and so went for the day trip.

The meeting time is at 830am and is opposite the main train station which is near to where my hostel is…so it’s pretty convenient for me. And I tried to wake up earlier to go to the train station to get some pastries for breakfast.

The tour group is very big and it’s the first time I’ve been on a tour that consists of more than 60 people and the coach is double decker wan! And its also a varied group from Singapore (me only, hehe), quite a lot from Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Australia, USA etc. The tour leader is very interesting, he is very experienced in taking local tours and bringing Germans abroad that he can speak a few languages…the tour was conducted in English and Spanish and then the rest will have headphones to listen to and tuned to the correct language channel. And he can speak a few common words like thank you, one, two, three etc in Japanese, Chinese, etc (can’t remember exactly liao). And he has been to Singapore a few times before and can tell me stuffs etc.

Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier…when I was in Nuremberg and talking to the Australian gal and when she knew that I was from Singapore, she has heard about the fines that are being imposed for not littering, not flushing toilets (hehe, I never knew there is a fine for this though), etc…she was actually quite scared in visiting Singapore cos she scared that she will be ‘caught’ and then have to be fined! That is so funny. And I had to assure her that even though with all these fines, nothing will happen…with regards to littering, everyone knows that they should throw the rubbish into the rubbish bin etc…nothing to worry about so long as you don’t bring drugs, pirated CDs, etc into the country, everything is perfectly fine. This is not the first time I have come across this liao…can’t remember where I encounter this as well with foreigners who haven’t been to Singapore but have heard stories etc.

And for those who have been there, their reaction would be that Singapore is a very clean country.

And when I have to tell them stuffs about Singapore – where to go etc…I always mentioned the Night Safari and I always tell them that I haven’t been there but have heard that it’s good! HAHA!!! I should have went there at least once before coming here man. And then I would tell them to go eat the hawker food etc. And naturally, when it comes to introducing food, I am very good at it though! That’s how I ate to get to my current size!!!

The first stop we went to was the Linderhof Castle. The whole place was covered with snow and it’s so nice! But I guess during summer, it will be another different kind of nice as there will be green trees and water flowing in the garden etc. Linderhof Castle is a very small castle and at any one time, there can only be a certain number of people in the castle. So my tour group has to be split into two and go in separately. Even though the castle is very small, it is a very interesting tour because the tour guide (from the castle and not the same tour guide from the group) is very humorous and make jokes about the castle every now and then.

The tour is only about 30 minutes and then its off to Oberammergau…which is a small town and a short stop-over for people to buy some stuffs – and there’s nothing to buy at all, at least to me! I saw a lot of Caucasians buying a lot of those dolls etc and in my heart I was wondering why would anyone buy those cos it looks damn scary! Reminds me of that scary doll, Chucky (not my other friend who is being nicknamed Chucky though).

But the small town is very interesting though, most of the houses there have cartoons drawn onto it – I can only remember Little Red Riding Hood…and the tour guide will point to us when the bus drove past but we don’t get to alight and take pictures.

There is nothing much to see in the shops and there is still quite some time, so I wander around the small town. It was drizzling that day and it was so cold that there are very tiny droplets of snow because it is so cold. But then its so small that I couldn’t really see it or feel it.

After Oberammergau, we went straight to where Neuschwanstein Castle is and had lunch there. I made the mistake of ordering some pork thing which taste awful! And I wasn’t full, but then I can’t afford to spend too much money liao cos I am running out of cash.

There is an almost 2 hours break for lunch before the castle tour at about 330pm…after lunch, all I could do was walk around the very small town and look at postcards etc. The castle is located on a hill and I am too lazy to climb up the hill which will take around 30 minutes and so I took a horse carriage ride up instead which cost me €5.

And then we had to wait for the designated time slot because all tours into the Neuschwanstein Castle must be accompanied by a guide and they have different time slots for different languages. It was so cold up there that my hands and legs were numb! Luckily, I found a hiding place inside the small ‘shop’ selling postcards…it’s not very warm but at least better than standing outside.

The inside of the castle is just like any other castle. But the exterior is pretty nice…though it would be great if I can see the whole castle. While on the tour inside the castle, I saw from the window that there is a bridge between 2 mountains which is opposite the castle and I guess from that view, I would be able to see the whole castle. There were people on the bridge and I wonder how they got onto the bridge. Later, I heard from Kheng Leng that we can go onto the bridge and she did went there a few years back while touring Europe with Eliza. Hmmmm, too bad I didn’t know beforehand. Sigh…cos from the postcards I bought, Neuschwanstein Castle is very nice and that is where Disney got the inspiration from.

There is also another castle near the area, also built by King Ludwig II called Hohenschwangau Castle which we didn’t go but can see from the town…the outside don’t look as nice as the other 2 though.

After the tour, we took the bus back to Munich and that is the end of my castles tour.