Munich & Bolzano: Part 11 - Day 9: Road trip to Neuschwanstein castle

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 9.

7/8 Day 9: Rented a car and drove to Neuschwanstein Castle. 

Must-Incur Costs
(1) Ticket into Neuschwanstein Castle - EUR17,50 per person. Includes a guide.

Optional Costs
(1) 1 day car rental from Sixt - EUR267,56 (rental fees EUR80,18 and basic insurance EUR32,25)

(2) Parking at Neuschwanstein Castle - EUR10

(3) Breakfast at Coffee Fellows - Coffee creme EUR3,70 and sandwich caprese panini for EUR5,30 

(4) Lunch at Cafe Helmerhof - Ghoulash with game meat EUR16,50, lemonade drink EUR3,50, cappucino EUR3,30, dessert slice of plum cake EUR4
(5) Beer at Löwenbräukeller - EUR21 for 3 persons (2 mugs of 500ml and 1 mug of 1 liter)

(6) Late night dinner at Viktualiers market (no photos) - 2 sausages and sauerkraut SEK5,50

The Story
070822 - Breakfast at Coffee Fellows. The cafe is located next to the hotel.

After breakfast, we walked to Sixt office that is located in Munich Central train station to collect the rented car. We booked the car from its website. It takes about 2 hours to drive to Neuschwanstein Castle. We have bought the tickets to the castle from the website and chose the time 12.50pm for the entry. The tickets include a guide too and this is not an option. 

Safely arrived at our destination after about 2 hours! There were lots of vehicles at the parking lots and there are many parking spaces. This castle is said to be the inspiration of the castle in Disney films. Do you know the castle that appears in the beginning of all Disney films? I could not see the resemblance, though. 

From the ticket center, it is about 1.5km on a slightly steep road to the castle. The website estimated 40 minutes to walk but we took about 20 minutes. One has the option to rent a spot in the horse carriage too. 

Check out the next photo for the zoomed-in castle!

It is very well-organised here. One can see the time slots for the respective ticket numbers. Ours is 12.50pm so we have about 1 hour to stroll around and take lots of photos.

There is a kiosk right before the castle and those are some expensive prices. 500ml water for EUR3.

Some spots have lots of tourists queueing to take photos and we queued up too. There was no one managing the queue but it was a mutual understanding by standing in a line. This corner of the view has a queue. I am pretty sure the view will be amazing if the skies were clear. 

To get inside through the doors of the castle, one must have a face-mask. I saw some tourists bargaining with the security guard to let them in as they do not have a mask. 

Thankfully, there is a toilet within the castle grounds. 

Our ticket number soon! One is not allowed to take photos inside the castle. The castle has similar interior designs as any European castles. This castle was not completed as King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his psychiatrist was found drowned one night in Lake Starnberg which is about 72km from the castle. The guide took 40 minutes. 

After the guide in the castle, we took a walk in the nature just behind the castle. There is a hanging bridge and there was a long queue so we decided to skip the bridge.

The hanging bridge that has many humans.

For our lunch break, we stopped at the next village - Helmerhof. We had a very yummy lunch and dessert!

Our dessert selection is so pretty! Clockwise from right - Cheesecake with cream EUR5, appelstrudel with ice cream EUR5,60 and my plum cake for EUR4.

We were so stuffed after our lunch and took a walk around the village. It was a scenic view.

Back in Munich, we had beer again at another beer garden! This time, it is Löwenbräukeller and our driver bought a 1 liter beer because he was not allowed to drink beer during lunch. He was very happy with his ein mass and is very proud that he has experienced the real German drinking. Haha! 

In the evening, we walked around Old Town and I managed to get a photo in front of the new town hall. Thank goodness for summer evenings. This photo was taken at 8.40pm!