On the itinerary we had a stopover on the border of Bavaria, near the place where the old castles are located. To be more precise, the first records are dated by 13-14 century. Though the buildings didn't survive till our days in the original state. Grandson of the first King of Bavaria bought ruins of Schwanstein in the middle of 19 century and made a huge reconstruction. The result survived till our days and attracts thousands of tourists.

Castles are owned by descendants of Royal family even nowadays, though almost since the beginning of 20 century it’s open as museum and nobody lives there. However owners ask visitors do not take pictures inside. May be they think it will attract more visitors (:

A lot of people have no idea that there are really two castles. The old one, rebuilt from ruins Hohenschwangau, and the new one build by Ludwig II of Bavaria though it was not really finished. All construction works were terminated right after the king passed away. Or was killed. Nobody knows what really happened there.

Castles are located next to each other. Though to get there is not that easy. You have to go up, and it had to be really a challenge during construction. Even from the entrance to castle it is a very beautiful view.

There are lakes next to castles. In such a hot weather (around +30) you really want an overwhelming desire to swim a bit. However in this lake the water was quite cold, so we didn’t take the chances.

One of interesting viewpoints is Mary bridge. Unfortunately just 2 weeks before my visit is was closed for reconstruction. Therefore I had no chance to check it. The only thing I saw was the closed bridge.

It’s not that easy to get inside the castles. You can (and probably have to) book the ticket in advance. Otherwise you will loose the time in huge queue. Moreover tickets were selling like hot cakes. Therefore around noon you can buy already only tickets for evening excursion. This is the only way to get inside. Excursion (with quite a good speed) for about 35 minutes. Sometimes you would want to slow down, though you can’t. You have to follow the group.

As usual there are some musicians, who tries to earn money near popular tourist places. From the very same place you also can watch gliders, who’s trying to catch the wind.

One don't have to go up by walking. For lazy tourists there are buses and even horses. Of course for additional fee.
There was too many Chinese tourists here. Looks like normally here they have a lot of Chinese, as even the signs are translated to Chinese. Just like in Sheremetyevo airport (: