Where Hope Lives
Despite the hangover, the castle tour was a nice way to end our stay in Munich on a lighter note. The tour consisted of a two hour high speed train journey, followed by a bus to the base of the mountain where the castle resided. We then walked up the mountain to the castle door, a good 30 minute walk. What started as an overcast rainy day in the town below slowly transformed into snow as the colder and higher in altitude we got, by the time we had arrived at the top and walked around the back of the castle to where one of the viewing areas were, there was snow.
From the very top there were panoramic views of distant mountain ranges covered in snow, the town site and various farmlands running off into the horizon on the other side in front of the castle.
Our guide was a young lady by the name of Virginia. Although both her parents were European, she was raised in Miami Florida, she moved back over to Europe for university, which is a lot cheaper than in the states. She was short, only five feet, her hair a cross between European blonde and USA blonde (if that makes any sense). Dispite her hair, she got lost in a crowd very easily, a trait not very good for tour guides, but combated it by finding seats or benches to stand upon to perch her above all others. What surprised me most was how well she projected her voice; for a short person it was very loud and authorative – but not in a shouting way.
You could tell she was passionate about this tour and the history that made these castles what they are today. She began with a overall history of the region, then went through the kings and royals that continued to develop the region over their reign and build various castles.
Virginia told an enthralling story about a young king who was handed the throne at eighteen years of age. Not having an ambition of conquest or battle like his father he followed his own pursuits of art and culture and with that built the Newschwanstein castle, based on a fairy tale castle.
One of the tragedies being that he only got to enjoy his castle for six months before his council conspired together to out him as king. This then lead on to a series of complicated events which ultimately resulted in the mysterious death of the king giving life to a number of conspiracies. In his will he decreed that his castle be destroyed, so no one else can look upon it with contempt. Due to the fact that the king died owing money to a number of other royal families around Europe, this debt landed on Bavaria. In an effort to recoup some of the money, less than a month after the kings death, the castle was reopened as a museum, and it’s still open as a museum to this very day.
On the two hour train back home a group of four of us, including the guide were sitting together, some of us sleeping, Virginia was talking to the young woman across the aisle from me – it turns out she works on the set of ‘Homeland’ and has frequent interactions with the lead cast including Claire Danes. According to our ‘1 degree of separation from celebrity status’ guest, they are currently working on season 3 of Homeland.