A Dream Come True: Neuschwanstein Castle

I’m sure everyone knows about the Cinderella/Princess Castle that’s in Disney World and Disneyland, right?
Well, there is a castle called the Neuschwanstein Castle that is located in Fussen, Germany which is what the Cinderella castle was based off of. Being a huge Disney fan that I am, seeing this castle has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. Going to see this princess castle was one of the things that I knew I had to do while I was abroad and it finally became a reality the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Holly and I flew over to Munich, Germany which is about two hours away from the castle. During our first night there, we adventured around the city centre of Munich. It was night time, but there were many Christmas lights that lit up the city beautifully!

We were also able to see a gorgeous night view of the New Town Hall, which essentially is a HUGE clock tower. The way that the light was shining on it made it absolutely beautiful.

There were Christmas markets all around the area of the New Town Hall. Sadly, they were all closed at this time so we were only able to see the stands and people starting to close up any remaining stands. But all of the stands had Christmas decorations and it was still very fun to walk through the streets.
One thing that caught our attention was this huge display at a mall. The mall had a stuffed animal store inside it, so it was a display of many, many animals celebrating the Christmas season! It was absolutely adorable and I wished I could take them all home with me…or even better, I wish I could have that display at home! This was probably hands down the cutest display that I have ever seen and it looked like a lot of effort went into it! Here are a couple pictures I took:

 

At this point, I hadn’t seen a whole bunch of Christmas decorations at Cambridge yet, so this definitely put me into the Christmas spirit. There were so many people there looking at the display and taking pictures; many of them were happy, little children! It made me really happy to see that this display brought out so many smiles on people walking down the street. I wish the States had intricate mall displays like these!

 

The following day was dedicated to the castle: the day that I have been waiting for (:
We took a train down to Fussen, Munich, and then a bus right to the bottom of the Alps mountain where the castle stands.
It was a very pleasant hike up to the castle. Nothing too difficult, but it wasn’t just flat, boring roads either. I was hoping for some snow, which we didn’t see, but most of the leaves that were on the mountains were red and yellow and colored the mountains beautifully.

As we neared closer to the castle, I was almost hyperventilating from excitement (a little dramatic, I know).
We finally made it to the top, and the castle was everything that I hoped for. It really was just like the Cinderella castle at Disney and I could really tell that it was modeled off of this.

I was so happy to see it up close, but I also wanted to see the view that I’ve seen in pictures. I knew there had to be a way to get up there, and while Holly and I went inside the castle grounds and looked out to the beautiful view, we found it:

So our next task was to find how to get to the bridge since it seemed like it was on the other end of this part of the mountain. It wasn’t too difficult though, since we realized that there were a bunch of people heading the same direction. On the way to the bridge, we were able to see some great views. This was a more rural area, compared to Munich, and it was very beautiful in its own way.

There aren’t mountains in Cambridge (the biggest “lump” of land we have is the Castle Hill, which really is just a hill) so it’s a nice change seeing such big mountains. Not to mention, they are just beautiful. If I had more time here, I would loved to have gone hiking. But our nice, little hike up to the castle and to the bridge will have to do for this time!
Finally arriving at the bridge, it took me a lot of courage to walk on it, but it was definitely worth it. Here is the castle of my dreams!

Aaaaaand crossing that off my bucket list (:

I could not have been more thrilled to see the castle of my dreams. Being abroad gave me the opportunity for me to accomplish something that I have always wanted to do and I am so thankful for that. This was the last out-of-England trip that I made, and it was a great way to start wrapping up the semester. After traveling to Italy, Ireland, and Germany this semester, it strongly encouraged my desire to come back to Europe one day again. Next time, I will know exactly the places that I want to go to but will also be willing to see new things as well. Flying (and taking the ferry!) is right under my belt, and I’ve become a much more confident traveler 🙂 Maybe backpacking throughout Europe will become a reality one day in the near future!

Until next time,

Cheers!