After such a harrowing trip to Dachau, John and I decided to search for a fairytale. The best place to find such a thing in Germany is of course at the Königschlosser, or King´s Castles, where the famous castle of Neuschwanstein is located, along with Hoschwangau, an older castle.

Both of these castles revolve around King Ludwig II, a rather mysterious man who offended his aristocracy, who declared him insane and forced him to abdicate. A few days later, he was found dead in a lake.

To get to Füssen from Munich, you take a local train which deposits you at Füssen station. The trip is glorious, winding along the foot of the Romantic Road, with beautiful buildings and pretty farmland. Sitting across from me was a German girl about my age who had been born in Füssen, where her grandparents still live, and had been raised in Dachau. She told me about her life in Hamburg, and places to walk close to the Königschlosser, which we later put to practical use. Eurail is valid on this train, but to save Flexipass days, we purchased a Bayern Ticket, a sort of group ticket for public transit in Bavaria.

Upon reaching Füssen station, we caught a local bus which deposited us at the ticket centre. We then wasted a lot of time. On the train, we had met Patrick, a backpacker on a monthlong trip through central Europe. It is normal to wait 1.5 hours to get into Neuschwanstein, but we waited around 3, because we had to exchange our tickets due to more transit confusion. We finally entered the castle at 5:25, and took the brief tour, with one creepy guide. He was a slight teenager who recited the tour from rote. For all that, he was very informative.

We then were in a big rush to get back to Munich. We wanted to catch the 7:05 train, which we did, with about a minute to spare. We changed trains to get to Munich, and got home around 10:00. John entertained me with impersonations of our castle guide, and we exchanged emails with Patrick, who was travelling on to Venice. Only one question bothered me - we seemed to be the only ones who changed for Munich with two busloads of our fellow tourists getting on the train? Where were they going?

Neuschwanstein is very worthwhile, dedicated to the work of Richard Wagner and lavishly decorated. The wood carving and painted ceilings are particularly noteworthy. It was like out of a fairytale.