NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE
Senior Phillip Kinney intrigued by majestic palace
Neuschwanstein is among the most popular European palaces and castles and sees 1.4 million visitors annually. (Contributed photos)
Today started pretty early.
We had to be downstairs in the lobby of our Munich hotel by 5:45 a.m. We grabbed a breakfast box and made our way to the bus that would take us to Castle Neuschwanstein in Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany.
As we approached the end of our 1.5-hour bus ride, the castle came into view.
“Majestic” is the only word I can think of to succinctly describe the elegant beauty of the castle’s grey stone exterior and Medieval architecture. However, this should not come as a surprise, because Castle Neuschwanstein serves as the inspiration for the famous castle at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The castle’s beauty was rivaled only by the breathtaking views of the mountains, waterfalls and other natural features available on the property.
Kinney
Despite the castle’s majesty, there was something that I thought was an eyesore. The front of the castle was completely obscured by scaffolding that is currently being used by builders to complete a maintenance project. This was a little disappointing because I felt that the scaffolding took away from the experience.
What I neglected to realize in that moment was the bigger picture of what was taking place.
Construction on the castle began in 1869, at the behest of King Ludwig II. Unfortunately, construction was never completed (more than 200 rooms planned) because King Ludwig was arrested and died the next day in 1886. He only lived in the house for about six months.
Since the castle is old and gets more than a million visitors a year, ongoing maintenance is required to keep everything looking and functioning as it should.
PeeDee enjoys a visit at Neuschwanstein.
Our tour guide even commented, “There is never a time when builders are not here.”
I found an impactful lesson in this. As students and business professionals, ongoing “maintenance” is necessary. This maintenance is required in both our personal and professional lives.
In our personal lives, it can involve taking time to care for our physical, mental and emotional health, and/or relationships with the people in our lives. On a professional level, “maintenance” can mean making the time to improve our personal brand, reading a book that will help take us to the next level professionally, keeping up with the latest innovations in our industries, or just doing an honest assessment of our strengths and how we can better use them.
Similar to the way ongoing maintenance keeps Castle Neuschwanstein available for visitors to experience, ongoing “maintenance” and development will aid in our success as both students and businesspeople.
-by Phillip Kinney, senior from Durham majoring in business management information systems
June 6, 2018