Fussen

Ludwig II died in 1886 and work stopped, so the castle has never been finished. Only about fifteen of the planned rooms were completed. The throne room has never held a throne. Tickets are timed and sold in the village below, and the tour runs half an hour.

The yellow castle opposite was raised on a medieval ruin by Ludwig's father in the 1830s. He grew up in it, and Germanic legend is painted across the walls of every room. A telescope in his mother's room is said to be where he watched the site opposite.

Check before you set out in winter, because ice or snow shuts it. A narrow footbridge hangs over the Pollat gorge, the one spot that faces Neuschwanstein head on. Gaps between the planks show the drop straight down.

A footpath goes right round the lake below Hohenschwangau in a little over 5 kilometres, under trees for nearly all of it. Swimming is allowed at the marked shore, though the water comes off the mountains and stays cold in high summer.

Windows and stonework are painted onto the courtyard walls, which are in fact flat. Only up close does it become clear which openings are real. The gallery inside gathers carved wooden saints from workshops nearby.

The frescoes in the crypt are among the oldest left in Bavaria, and the door is unlocked for a short window each day. The abbey building holds the records of the lute and violin workshops. Fussen once made lutes and sent them out across Europe.

The cable car climbs to 1,720 metres, and paragliders run off the top one after another. The walk down runs to three hours and punishes the knees. Beside the valley station a Roman villa lies where it was dug out.

Fifteen minutes' walk from the town centre, the Lech drops into a narrow cleft of rock. Limestone turns the water jade, and in high water the spray reaches the footbridge.

A church stands alone in a meadow with no village around it. In 1738 word spread that a carved wooden Christ had wept. Pilgrims came, and the church went up to house the figure. The ceiling painting runs into the walls, blurring where the building ends.

The lake is a reservoir, and each winter it is drained until the bed comes up dry. Boats run only while it is full, between June and October. When it is down you can walk the old roads and bridge stumps left on the bottom.

A museum opened in 2011 in a converted former hotel on the Alpsee shore, telling the story of the Wittelsbach dynasty. Ludwig II's blue robe is the showpiece. Its big windows frame Hohenschwangau Castle and the lake together.

A small lake north of Fussen, with a promenade running along the village of Hopfen am See. Across the water the Allgau Alps rise like a screen. Tour groups skip it in favour of the castle lakes, so on summer days the swimmers are mostly locals.

A wooded valley just west of Fussen's old centre strings together three small lakes, and a walk leads to the last, the Alatsee. Divers know that lake for a red bacterial layer deep down. The shore paths are mostly shaded, easy going even in midsummer.

A hill south of Fussen climbed past the Stations of the Cross, with three crosses and a small chapel at the top. From the summit, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau stand together on the slopes opposite. The path is steep and stony, so wear trainers.

A pedestrian suspension bridge over the border in Reutte, Austria, spanning the valley between the Ehrenberg castle ruins and the fort opposite. It is 406 metres long, and the road shows through the mesh floor. The name comes from Route 179 passing below it.

A little lake in woods beneath Hohenschwangau Castle, its banks laid out as an English-style park. Far quieter than the Alpsee, it offers a view up to both castles from the waterside meadow. The car parks by the castle ticket centre are minutes away on foot.