Don't stop me now, I'm having such a fairy tale in Neuschwanstein, Bavaria

I was really in a fairy-tale in Fussen. I don't know how can I tell what I felt in this place but it was very very mystical  place I've ever seen. In my visit to Germany, my friends told me that I should go and see Schwangau. Lots of time we made plan to go there, but something went wrong. And I decided to make a visit on my own in my last day of 20 day Germany trip. What a shame :))

Schwangau 

Schwangau

Schwangau

When I arrived to Fussen, I felt that I was really lucky to be in that place. Indeed the landscape of Alps was perfect  in its own but Schloss Neuschwanstein adds an extra beauty to this region. Ludwing II created a fairy-tale in the Alps, in an magnificent landscape. 

It was built in medieval style in the 19th century. King Ludwig wanted to create his own alternative world. He could live like a king of the Middle Ages. This was the idea behind the castle and he created his fantasy world. But Ludwig slept only 11 nights in castle. When the guide told us the story while visiting his bedroom, I felt worried about him. 

To reach the area castle located, you need to take a bus from Fussen train station. Bus stop is behind the station and if you bought a bayern ticket, which gives you unlimited travel by train in Bayern, you don't need to pay for bus. It takes 5-10 mins from station. 

In Hohenschwangau, at first you should go to ticket center to learn the tour times and take a ticket fitting your programme. Sometimes, it can be 2 hours between two tours in English.  And please keep in mind that you need minimum 20 min to reach the castle place. 

walking route

Castle is located on top of the hill and you should climb to reach it. 3 options; walking, taking bus and horse-carriage. Horse carriage has no schedule, they run independently according to demand of the visitors. If you take the bus, you need to walk when you get-off. 

The point is that you are responsible for your schedule, because if you miss the tour and you aren't there on time, no refund :(( If you have a good health condition, I advise you to walk. 

Walking route

The route was acceptable for walking. Furthermore I saw a group of 60-70 year-old people walking down in this route. Maybe it can be an encouraging example for you. :) It took 15-20 min. and I had enough time for my tour, approx. 1 hour:)) There are souvenir shops and cafe-restaurants along your route also. 

When I reached the courtyard of castle, it was time to discover  surrounding, because I had enough time for my tour. I surrounded back side of castle and saw a viewpoint where lots of tourists were taking photos. It was an incredible landscape. At the background, The Alps, Alpsee and a great topography were waiting for you. 


At first I watched the panoroma quite a while and took lots of photos. I had great photos but it seemed as if I had not satisfactory photos showing this magnificent view. So I took photos again and again. :))) I must confess that the photos with me were not as attractive as the photos of only panorama. I think I don't need to say more. 

Alpsee

Alpsee

Second view point is Marien brücke located above the castle. From this point, Schloss Neuschwanstein seems a part of great idyllic world and as a Disneyesque image.

Marien brücke from castle

Neuschwanstein from Marien brücke

Inside of the castle has different atmosphere, but I won't tell that. I wish you visit and feel the same as all of us visited and left with great feelings from this place. At the moment while I'm writing about there, I am still excited.:)))

Prien am Chimsee, Bayern Region, Germany

I had many opportunities to see lots of destinations and make day trips during my travel in Germany this year. One of them was Chiemsee. I had planned to go to "Insbruck" for a day trip from Munich , therefore I got up early in the morning to catch the train. But the plan didn’t work out :((   When I reached to the DB train station, I tried to buy a Bayern ticket to travel cheaper in Bavaria region... I wanted to be sure the ticket was available for Insbruck, so I asked to the staff in the ticket office... They told me that Bayern ticket didn’t contain the city of Insbruck. 
At that time, I started to think about the other choices... 
But the hours worked against me. ..
A train to Ulm departured, then the other one to Fussen and so on...
I needed to decide a place to go. So I chose the closer one and take the train to Prien am Chimsee. And I took the train to Salzburg. The direction is same to go to Chiemsee, by the way I had seen the station when I went to Salzburg.   

Prien am Chiemsee train station

Prien am Chiemsee town center

It took one hour and I reached the small and nice town of Chiemsee. Town was really beautiful on its own. The first thing affected me so much was buildings. Lots of buildings were two storeys and there were decorative paintings on the facades of the buildings and they make the total view really fabulous. 

Prien am Chiemsee Heimat Museum

When you get off the train, you are in the town center and you need to walk or take a train to reach the Chimsee. Firstly, I preferred to stroll around a little and wanted to see the streets, squares and buildings. There were some street cafes, restaurants in the center, but there were not so much people around. Nontheless, it was really nice and attractive. 

Chimsee town center

Seestraße

After I took a map of the town from tourist information, I decided to walk through Seestraße to reach to the See and port. You have a chance to take the nostalgic train to the destination, but I think it was good idea to walk and see the surroundings. It wasn’t too long and I walked approximately 20 minutes. Here is a seaside place and there are houses with gardens on the both side of the route. There are also some small restaurants, cafes, shops along the street, so it is an attractive route to walk. 

Seestraße

Houses in the  Seestraße 

Houses in the  Seestraße 

Chiemsee Bahn -nostalgic train-

When I confronted with lots of hotels, I noticed that I came to waterside. The view and paysage was outstanding. I took the photos, but when I looked at the photos, I didn’t feel like that. It is really different to see and feel the atmosphere on site.

The Alps and Chiemsee lake

There are two important islands in Chimsee. One of them is Herrenchiemsee and the other one is Frauenchiemsee. I chose only Herrenchimsee which is bigger one... In fact I hadn’t enough time to stroll two of them:)). 


Let's look at to the Herrenchiemsee...

Versailles garden in the German island - Herrenchiemsee Palace park-

It was a sunny day and taking a boat trip was good. I reached to the island after 15 min. long trip. I had no idea about places that  I would see in the island. 
When you arrive there, first you see the tourist information and ticket office. You need to buy a ticket to visit the palace located in the island, but I didn’t prefer to visit inside of it and I started to walk to the place where the palace located. You confront with some signs reminding to buy the ticket, before you reach the palace. Because you can't buy it in the palace or another place and you need to walk 15-20 minutes to reach there. If you decide to visit the palace, you need to turn back or you can't visit. Therefore I hesitated a little, but then I went on... 

Herrenchiemsee port

Horse carriage in the island

The island is covered lots of trees, green and wild spaces. I was walking through the jungle and I didn't know what I would see at the end of the route... There were horse carriages as an option but as always I walked. When I arrived to the palace, I was shocked. Because I hadn’t read about the palace and garden before.

Herrenchiemsee Palace park was a model of the gardens of the Versailles Palace. King Ludwig II of Bavaria purchased the Chiemsee island and a plan made for this project. 

There were symmetrical planted parts and fountains and the main axis from the palace was reaching to the see. This included the "parterre d'eau" towards the west, consisting of two large basins with the surmounted statues of Fama and Fortuna expressly requested by Ludwig II to highlight the mythological effect, the flower parterre with the Latona fountain and the "Grand Canal", in front of whose mirror surface an Apollo fountain was to rise up. 

This garden was really surprising for me. I came here to see one of the famous and big lakes –Chimsee- for its natural beauty. Then I learned that there was an island and all of the tourists visited there, so I took a boat trip to see it. And I found a great model of the gardens of Versailles palace. It was a good present for a landscape architect to find a planned garden in an island spontaneously. Maybe a professional instinct attracted me to Prien am Chimsee.

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WATERLOO, Belgium: Historical landscape of battle which changed the European history.

Waterloo is an important place in European history, because this place is remembered with Napoleon's defeat.

On the way of Brussels from Mons, we had seen lots of route signs written "Waterloo". And then we decided to change our way to Waterloo to see this interesting place. Waterloo is a very small city in Belgian province of Walloon-Brabant. When we reached there, we only saw a few buildings including cafes, restaurants, museum and bars and large open and green spaces, and I thought that there is no living population in here. That was right, because the residential part of the city was far from this area. This part of the city is special for tourists to see only battlefield. The monuments of the Waterloo- "Battu du Lion" located on the top of hill can be seen from road and of course you follow this direction to reach that point.

Waterloo is the place where the "Battle of Waterloo" between French under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General Brücher from Prussia took place. Although the fighting mostly took place in Braine-l'Alleud and the surrounding areas, history commemorates it under the name of "Battle of Waterloo" with its monument - the "Butte du Lion" (The Lion's Mound). The battle of Waterloo is one of the biggest battles in European history because of the consequences.

Waterloo battlefield has been preserved almost it was in 1815 and it is a good example of historical landscape of Waterloo. The Wellington museum (headquarters of Duke Wellington) presents now a panorama, fresco of battle. There were also a big historical re-enactment of the battle but it wasn't available on the date we had been there, but I wished I had seen it. Because in this event, thousands of re-enacters coming from all over the world gather for a magnificent reenactment of the events of 1815. Generally the show takes place on the date of the battle which is 18th June. So maybe it is more meaningful to visit this historical landscape on these dates to live this atmosphere.

We went to Waterloo by car and saw lots of tourists coming with a group tour. So I had no idea about reaching this area by public transportation. But I think if you chose to come to Walloon region of Belgium, you had a few chance to take public transportation. It is better to rent a car for your stay, but the north parts of the Belgium are really accessible by public trains and by foot in the center of the cities. As a result of car transportation, you focus on only museum place and visit this place and leave from there very quickly. So I hadn't any chance to see residential part of the city. But architectural styles and streets in the museum place were really traditional and give you the inspiration of this historical atmosphere.

There is also a sculpture of Napoleon in memory of his defeat in here :) 


www.waterloo1815.be