Following in The Footsteps of The Swan King in Bavaria, Germany

Once anyone has seen a photograph of Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany, they all want to visit it! One of the most visited tourist destinations in Europe, instantly recognisable, dreamlike, perched up in the Bavarian Mountains near the Pollat Gorge, this fairy tale castle is found surrounded by truly beautiful scenery.

So many stories surround the castle as well, it was Walt Disney’s inspiration for the castle in Sleeping Beauty, when Hitler had his dream of creating his Fuhrermuseum in Austria, to be filled with the priceless works of art stolen throughout Europe by the Nazis, some of the pieces, along with catalogues of them, were stored at the castle. An allied unit known as the Monuments Men would go onto recover them…now a film directed by and starring George Clooney. The castle has also avoided destruction…twice…the Nazis planned to explode it following their surrender with all of the works of art inside. The castles own creator, King Ludwig ii also ordered the castle be destroyed following his death…luckily his orders were never carried out!

It was after reading a book by Chris Kuzneski, The Secret Crown, which really made us want to visit the castle even more. His description of the place, and of its builder, the Swan King (King Ludwig ii) and his other creations were stories my fiancée and I really enjoyed and got us making plans to visit almost straight away. We wanted to visit this amazing place but also wanted to find out more about it’s creator, the supposed “Mad King” Ludwig ii. It took us a while…but we got there in the end!

We decided that during this trip we were going to camp, this would keep the costs down, and also there was something so appealing about escaping the city and really enjoying being outdoors in this scenery, breathing in the crisp mountain air, really making the most of it. We packed our tent and sleeping bags, it was made easier by the fact that we were flying with Lufthansa with 23kg checked luggage included in the cost, flights we found through Opodo.

There was no problem having a tent in the luggage, the only problem we had was that when we got there I’d forgotten that I’d needed to pick up extra tent pegs! We managed though with the few we had, just enough to pin the ground sheet and fly sheet, mainly as luckily it didn’t get very windy!

We booked a pitch at Bannwaldsee Campsite which we were able to book online, you can even choose the location of the pitch within the site yourself. The campsite was great, more aimed at people with caravans and tourers than those looking to camp but still a really lovely site with a great restaurant and nice shop with a brilliant bakery. It was the location though which makes this campsite really brilliant, it is on the shores of the Bannwaldsee lake which makes it pretty picturesque…but…within a 5 minute drive we had really great views of Neuschanstein Castle, Hohenschwangau Castle, and the mountains beyond. This is where the photographs above were taken, check out my Instagram account for more, this place really is a photographers paradise! We had flown to Germany from Birmingham straight after I had finished a night shift, so the initial plan was that we would just chill out at the campsite once we had got there and relax…excitement and that sense of adventure got the better of us though “Shall we just go and see if we can get a view of the castle during sunset?” and the reply “Oh Yeah!” we were so happy that we had…this was one of those magical little unexpected moments travelling throws at you every now and again.