The goal this day was to get to the castles early before sunrise and get good photos.

We followed a path wich led us to Marienbrücke. This is a bridge that Ludvig II had constructed so he could look at his dream castle from a pleasent angle. About 90% of all pictures on the net of castle Neuschwanstein is taken from this bridge.. We took some photos but wasn't satisfied -- better pictures needed!
We decided to walk along a path up the mountain (leeding to the topstation of a cable car). The first couple of hours the path was easy to follow, but then it was gone! I guess it was there somewhere but it was burried in two meters of snow. In addition to that; it was now more of a climbing than walking.
We tried to climb where it was possible, always trying to have trees below us in case of losing grip. It was pretty hard, we often sank down to our waist in the snow. After about half an hour of struggling we realised that this maybe was a bad idea .We turned back. At least we got some pretty good shots of castle Neuschwanstein.

After this we returned to the foot of the mountain and had some nice chili wurst (chili sausages).

Now we had the energy to make another try for some good photos. The idea was to climb up the mountain in front of the castle, making it possible for us to have the front side of the castle directly in front of us and the Alps in background. Seemed like the mountain was private ground. We trudged up the mountain. It was hard. Same problems as last mountain hike: deep snow and steep paths. Once again the mountain forced us to give up. Soaked shoes and trousers. Next time we will bring mountain climbing equipment!

In the afternoon we took the bus to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We checked in at the DJH-hostel.