GERMANY - Füssen, climbing down from Tegelberg mountain and castle Neuschwanstein

Today's peregrination was to the top of Tegelberg mountain via the 2,146 meter Tegelbergbahn cable car, and then a hike back down through the wooded declivitous alpine slopes to visit castle Neuschwanstein.

The trip up provided us with awe inspiring 360 views of the Allgäu Alps and Ammer Mountains that span the German and Austrian borders. Except that everything further than 10 metres away was completely obscured by an incredibly thick pea-souper brume. At least the Tegelbergbahn website shows us what we could have seen eh.

On the bright side though, the aphotic atmosphere gave us a hauntingly muted traipse down to 'Mad King' Ludwig IIs fairytale castle Neuschwanstein ("New Swanstone Castle").

Ludwig had built the castle in order to withdraw from public life and as a homage to Richard Wagner (the castle's name comes from Wagner's Lohengrin opera), and many rooms bear a border depicting the various operas written by Wagner, including a theater permanently featuring the set of one such play.

Before the castle was completed, the King was declared insane by a State Commission under Dr. von Gudden, arrested at the palace and deposed on grounds of mental illness without any medical examination. King Ludwig and von Gudden, the psychiatrist who certified him, were found drowned in shallow water in Lake Starnberg a day later under mysterious circumstances.

Just seven weeks after the death of King Ludwig in 1886, Neuschwanstein was opened to the public. The exact circumstances of his and von Gudden's deaths remain unexplained to this day.

One castle was enough for the day, so we admired castle Hohenschwangau (the smaller yellow one in the photos) from afar and called it a day - the 3 1/2 hour downhill had given our legs a fair run for their money, and we were starting to feel a bit jelly-legged by that stage. Time for food and more beer...

One stop back up the railway towards München we found the "best beer in Germany" and another filling German feast at the Maria Hilfer Brewhouse. Wholesome food and some damn good beer - can't ask for much more at the end of a hard day eh!