The Fairytale Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle from Mary's Bridge (it was very misty)

Today we went to the most famous castle in Germany, Neuschwanstein Castle, better known as the fairytale castle. (Also the one Disney used as the model for the Disney World Castle). We had a private tour of the castle, before it was open to the public for the day. The castle was never completed, due to the king’s death. However he did stay there for 127 days during the construction then returned to Linderhof Palace. We saw the completed rooms which included the bedroom, the throne room, the study, a few ancillary rooms and the theater room. Most of the castle is done in a Gothic style except the throne room which used Byzantine styling and architecture and done in bright royal blues and golds with a mosaic floor. The throne room resembled in my mind a church with the pictures of the Apostles, the Saints and Christ around the throne. The bedroom was definitely Gothic styling with dark wood paneling and ornate wood carvings. The one of the most interesting parts of the castle wasn’t a room but the telephone in the castle, which rang only the post office at the bottom of the mounta

in. The other interesting item is that they have pictures of the castle being built; which surprised me until I realized construction started in 1868. So it the castle is relatively new.

Once we finished the tour we found something to eat for breakfast before doing the hike around the castle. Since the tour was so early we did not have a chance to eat breakfast at the hotel. We had hot chocolate and a piece of berry strudel; it was good and not overly sweet. Now it was raining/misting during our hike over to Mary’s Bridge to get a better view of the castle. Then we walked down to see the waterfall and the base of the castle. That bit of the hike included a metal walkway that was cantilevered out over the river from the rock face. It the walk way was not there you would be walking in very cold mountain glacier river water. After that we found lunch in the little town at the base of the mountain hill before heading over to Füssen for a little bit. We went to see their small castle before heading back to the hotel via Austria and Lake Plansee.

Overall the castle is generally impressive and beautiful. However, I was a bit of letdown, like when I saw the Mona Lisa. Everyone talks about how magical it is, but I did not get that magical feeling. Was it worth the 30 minute hike up the very large hill (the castle is at about 3,000 feet above sea level) to see it, generally yes. But if I ever visit again I want to take the horse carriage. I would agree it is a must see thing if you are in Bavaria region of Germany.You can see pictures from the castle here.

Tomorrow we leave Oberammergau and head to Berchtesgaden to see the Eagle’s Nest and Königssee.

Comments

2025 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2026

This year was a bit interesting especially since during the day, I’m a government employee, which resulted in a lot of stress and a 42-day furlough. I didn’t attend as many cosplay events with the D.C Cosplay group, now Costume and Camera, as I normally would have, due to schedule conflicts. However, I traveled up to Poughkeepsie, New York for two photo events, one of which I was a featured photographer. I attended two conventions, one of which didn’t turn out as expected and the other just confirmed my decision to take a break from it. Though happily I did a lot of studio work this year, which I enjoyed. But on the other hand, I lost my dear “studio supervisor”, my dog Teddy. He liked to great clients and then “supervise” while lying/sleeping in his bed. I also started to work on the business side of my photography work, by investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) site to manage bookings, schedules, and payments. No more trying to juggle...

Cyber Blue

On October 11 th , I worked with Dayvon on a cyber concept shoot. This shoot was designed around a pair of contact lens with a circuit board pattern. This inspired me to think about things like “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and cyber punk in general. For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights 2 Phottix strobes 2 Phottix Rectangular Softboxes with a grid 2 C-stands Blue gels Silver garage insulation Backdrop stand Black backdrop Connectable foam workout mats For this shoot I started out using four lights. The first two were small speed lights with blue gels attached placed on the floor aimed at the backdrop. The backdrop was silver garage insulation, which looks like silver bubble wrap. The backdrop reflected the blue light forward providing a bit of rim light. My main two lights were the strobes is rectangular soft boxes with grids attached. For this shoot I kept the lighting very low key, styled along that of a photo of Ryan Gosling i...

Return to the National Portrait Gallery

On February 28th, I attended the Costume & Camera (previously DC Cosplay Photoshoots) event at the National Portrait Gallery in DC. I have a love/hate relationship with shooting at the National Portrait Gallery; it is a beautiful location due to its architecture, especially on the third floor, and I’m thankful that you are allowed to do portrait photography there as long as you don’t use flash. What I get frustrated with is the varying colors of light throughout the building and the need to use natural or continuous light. (I’m a flash girly.) For this event, I used: Canon R6 24 - 105mm lens Neewer 12-inch LED light Assistant Camera Settings: This shoot was inside the Portrait Gallery, which has a no flash policy, thus I was using a mix of natural and continuous lighting, which affects settings. My ISO ranged from 100 ISO to 3200 ISO with the most common ISO being ISO 1000. My aperture stayed between F4 and F5, with the most c...

The Munchkin's Notebook

Search This Blog