This is fine though if you happen to be in Munich. We've been to Munich - 3 times already. Twice for Oktoberfest, and on each of those trips there was not the opportunity to factor in an extra day for a visit to Neuschwanstein. The third trip was on our way back from Dubrovnik, we had a 6 hour layover in Munich - simply not enough time. But we were set on wanting to see it, and when Sasha hit upon the idea of seeing it covered in snow it gave us a focus of what time of year we would go there, and we started more seriously looking at how we might do it as a separate trip rather than have it as something we might tack onto a future trip to Munich or somewhere in that region, which was more sensible because we don't really have any need or want to return to Munich as a destination in itself outside of Oktoberfest - because we don't think there is anything else for us to do there, we've seen it all already!
We narrowed down the dates, I did the transport studies and became a bit stuck. Basically without spending two nights in Munich and having all the Saturday at the Castle, our time at the castle with flights to or from Berlin factored in was going to be limited. In the course of researching the transport options I came across a review on Tripadvisor from someone who mentioned they had stayed in Hohenschwangau and at night had been able to see the Castle all lit up. A quick glance at accommodation options, and there were a few and they weren't badly priced. Staying in Hohenschwangau would solve all the transport and time problems, as well as avoiding spending time in Munich. I put this to Sasha, who enthusiastically took up the idea and did some more detailed research on the accommodation and found that you could stay at a Hotel right next to the Castle which gave you access to the castle grounds at night after the main entrances had been closed off to everyone else. We could get lots of night photos of the Castle all lit up at our leisure with no-one getting in the way - perfect! The rest fell into place easily and we just had to hope that the snow would still stick around and not melt away by the time we got there.
Oh and one last thing - if you don't have a clue how you say Neuschwanstein, its said Noi-yer-schwann-steen. Usually Neu is pronounced Noi, and there's also the word Neuer which is said Noi-yer - but in this case its spelt Neu and said Noi-yer for some reason, don't know why. Noi-yer-schwann-steen. Neuschwanstein.
Day 1 - Snow and Schloss
Day 2 - Wandering Around
Summing Up
The Marienbrücke - yes, we may have ignored the fence and signs saying the path was closed. It was snow-covered, and icy in places but we weren't the only ones doing this and unlike a lot of the people attempting the path, we had proper snow shoes on and had a reasonable idea of where we needed to walk on the path to avoid slipping over. It was a calculated risk - if we'd done damage to ourselves yes, our travel insurance would not have covered us for that and our German medical insurance probably not either. However we didn't take the risk lightly, weighed it up and approached it with caution. The fact we did the trip a few times, with only one slip was testament to the fact that it was safe enough to do so given the gear we were wearing - anyone wearing normal street shoes or with limited motility would not have been able to do it safely though and I feel that's mostly where the fence was aiming at.
As for Munich - I don't mean to malign the place, but I am glad we manage to largely avoid spending time there this time. Despite "nothing else left to do" there, there is perhaps one more thing we might like to do in Munich that we know of - and thats to visit Dachau Concentration camp. Munich, very likely though will be visited again before our time in Europe is out - either as an entry point to somewhere else (Salzburg in Austria, perhaps or even elsewhere) or possibly yet another Oktoberfest? Don't know yet, as none of those ideas are planned for yet. But Munich is a transport hub so it seems inevitable.
The snow was just as we could have hoped - looking picturesque but not making things super cold, nor creating an unpleasant blizzard for us to be in. It was not the last of the snow we hoped to see either - but that is for the next trip blog...