Osterreinen - Wies, Germany

Tuesday 22nd June 1999

We started today with a visit to Neuschwanstein, famous as the epitome of fairy tale castles. It was raining on-and-off so we thought the number of visitors might be down a bit. Perhaps it was but the place was still overrun. The castle is great and well worth a visit but they run the worst guided tour operation I have ever come across. They grab thirty people at a time, at about five minute intervals, and start to escort them around the castle. The commentaries were allegedly in German or English, depending on which line you'd joined, but our guide seemed to be switching between the two at random, in the middle of a sentence. Part way in to the tour, in some particularly small rooms, another group of thirty people, all sporting audio-guide headphones, decide to overtake our group in a scene reminiscent of some sort of slow motion scrum. Eventually I realise that the best approach is to just drop off the back of the group and enjoy the rooms in silence. This way the place became very enjoyable and the unusual creations of Ludwig, the cave-like grotto, the chapel-like throne room, and the elaborately decorated homages to Richard Wagner, all came alive. It was over all too soon and we found ourselves back in the crush in the obligatory gift shop before escaping to outside and heading further up the hill to catch a couple of views of the castle from a distance. On the way we could see Ludwig's childhood home, the castle of Hohenschwangau. Not as fancy as Neuschwanstein but still pretty impressive. After climbing to a bridge above a waterfall just above the castle and snapping a couple of photos in the rain we headed back down to the van. Hoping for finer weather.

Things started to clear up as we drove north and headed towards our other destination for the day, the elaborately decorated church at Wies. Anita and I had stumbled across this on our previous trip and we were keen to see it again. It's a small church alone in a field and decorated inside in a rich rococo, but it's all so finely balanced that you are simply taken in rather than being overwhelmed by the gaudy embellishments. We spent some time just standing still and absorbing the atmosphere before slowly strolling around the interior then eventually heading out.

We emerged to find that the weather was clear and the sun was streaming over the fields. The day was getting late so we decided to stop nearby and found a pullover on the road leading from the church. After we settled for a time we noticed a fox in the distance eyeing us intently. After a few moments he decided to come for a closer look and headed right up to the side of the car, circling a couple of times as we excitedly watched through the windows. His curiosity satisfied he slowly headed off to the adjacent forest.