Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Multitudes of more photos of the Reynolds clan on their expedition to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau can be found on facebook (specifically Kathy's and Megan's pages), but here are a couple of my favorites.

Here is the Alpsee, the lake closest to the castles. There are many lakes in the region, but on the day we were there, there was not much visibility - since it was snowing - so we could only see a few. At this particular moment, it does not appear to be snowing, so I got a decent view.

Here is the Hohenschwangau castle, the birthplace of King Ludwig II, the "crazy king,"  and when he grew up he built ...

... Neuschwanstein castle (among others - in my German class we discussed how Bavaria was not very happy with Ludwig II spending so much money on castles, but it seems to have been an excellent long-term investment, since yesterday Megan and I estimated that on a typical day they receive about 100,000 EUR just in entrance fees, and that doesn't include all the food and souvenirs and entrance to Hohenschwangau and train tickets and bus tickets and food and souvenirs, which means that they certainly net several hundred millions per year, Boy wouldn't Ludwig be happy now).

Now, the question is, was Neuschwanstein really the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland/world? On this gray day, it did appear so much to me. The stone is not white, but more a subdued grayish brown. Although the turret looks pretty good, the shape is a little different. Judge for yourself here.