#19.07.16

365 Days of Aaron Dingle: Day 104

Ludwig II’s pride and joy was a castle in the picturesque mountains of Bavaria. The countryside is the sort that one thinks of when they think of Germany; the mountains soar into the sky, the rolling hills giving a green foreground to the misty blue backdrop of massive, jagged peaks, white with snow even in midsummer. The mist was thick around the mountains, not quite raised to clouds despite the later time of day. Though the higher peaks clearly showed signs of snowfall, the picturesque mountain that housed Hohenschwangau, the village that is situated on the rugged hills below the magnificent Schloss Neuschwanstein. The town itself was very much given to tourism, clean and quaint, charming but commercialized. The roads rolled with the sharp upturns with the landscape, plunging up and down through forests. The smaller, orange colored Castle Hohenschwangau surveyed the land from a hill smaller and opposite Neuschwanstein. The village bustled with traditional Bavarian foodstuffs and cold beverages, they celebrated the day with singing and cheerful vending, and the crowds were rarely pleased with moderation. The tourism in the town was beautiful, the main attraction a simple hike away. The road to the Neuschwanstein Castle proper was winding and long. People and horse drawn carriages made the hike in droves, the road was thickly shaded by massively tall mountain trees, giving the paved road a glistening, moving light show as it wound up the mountainside. The stone barriers prevented children and the unwary from slipping down steep, harsh stone cliffs, jagged and sheer. Some parts of the trail simply sloped into forest, but walls also protected these occasional traverses, so that the steep incline and thorny undergrowth wouldn’t tear up a curious invader. But the view was uninhibited and spectacular. The town of Füssen glistened below, with many red roofs and brown walls in a row, far off in the distance. There were lakes as well, shining in the half-sun light of the day, and green fields and lowland forests were protected under a backdrop of roiling gray clouds. The path roamed upwards, leaving more of a chill in the air the more in the open the mountain became. The trees faded to reveal the castle itself. Its towers were majestic, picturesque, its battlements secure and extremely well kept, hardly and dirt or wear marred the stone faces. The castle was artistic; it looked not like the work of an architect but that of a paper, preserved forever in the confines of a painted frame. It did not appear to be real, until the touch of a hand caressed the lovingly carved stones that had been used to build the castle up, overlooking the mountainous surroundings and the valleys below. The gate was massive and imposing, thick reinforced wood mounted in a stone arch, opened to the public. The face in which the arc was housed was the only part of the castle not a shade of gray or white; it was ruddy red-brown, stone striated in such a way that, for a moment, the casual observer may think that it must be a clever wood, before realizing that it was simply beauteous stone. The courtyard was large and open, but secured inside. The battlements were carefully carved with immense detail, the peaked roofs of the towers were blue-gray, and the castle itself seemed to gleam. Despite the massive size and strategic placement of the castle, it did not seem as if it was a building that had ever meant to be fortified against enemies. It was a work of art, a thing of an extreme beauty. It never gave the impression, nestled on the breathtaking overlook in the forests of Bavaria, that it was a castle that was intended for war. It was romantic, indeed, and likely a strong contender for the most handsome castle in the entire world, but not a work ever meant to withstand the beats of assault or the fatigue of siege. In fact, looking at its delicate construction, it’s vaulted halls, there was a twinge of horror at the mere thought of a destructive attack marring the white walls, of destruction coming to such a complex work of art. It was too well maintained, unblemished, and statuesque to be considered a ruin or even, perhaps, a fortress. And looking out into the canyons, seeing the bridge across the way and the deep precipices, the views and the beauty of the surrounding land and the battlements itself, it seemed to be a real shame that it even be considered for such a vulgar seeming purpose.

I am sad to announce that my Eisbrecher tour has been cancelled!! I'm pretty sad about it, bur I will make the best of it! I have some writing I'm going to upload soon, I went to Neuschwanstein and am in the editing stages of that one, plus another! Thanks!

1. My mum had the boy today and I got some serious cleaning done. 2. I lay on the new grass area in my garden and read my book for a while. 3. We had a lovely relaxing evening.

Robert Altman.

Also I’ll try to put up some plot ideas on my profile soon.