Fairy Tale Castles of Mad King Ludwig

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I don't remember the first time I saw a picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle, but I was impressed and thought it would be amazing to get to see it "for real". This was the day. After spending the last 9 days traveling alone, I had decided to sign up for a group trip to the castles. Since I had changed my hotels for my Munich stay, I only had to cross the street to get to the meetup place for this trip. We had a huge bus full of English speaking tourists, and a very knowledgeable guide. Obviously, there was an open seat next to me. Who would you guess would end up in that seat? If you guessed a wealthy, handsome, European man with a great sense of humor...you would be wrong. Instead, it was a retired teacher from Iowa who lost his wife two years ago to breast cancer. Ho hum. He was nice to talk to, but everything you would expect. We drove on the Autobahn for about an hour. I would have liked to know the speed of the cars speeding past us! There is no speed limit, and these German cars go fast! Crazy! The scenery was beautiful, and it reminded me of the Smoky Mountains. This is just the foothills of the Alps, so they're low enough to be covered with forests while the peaks are sometimes in the clouds. There were lots of cows in the huge meadows of bright green grass. All of the houses I've seen in Germany were built with tile roofs, but it looks like the replacement roofs are metal. They have the same patterns as the tile, except they're shiny. Once again, I saw the majority of houses had solar panels. Our first stop was the Linderhof Castle which was the first one built by crazy Ludwig. It's in the middle of the woods. It's fairly small, not really a castle but a hunting lodge. Supposedly, King Ludwig was a pacifist and didn't hunt, but he wanted a place to show off. The exterior and the grounds are beautiful, but when you walk inside it looks like a Rococo nightmare. Every inch is covered with gold leaf curlicues, crystal chandeliers, porcelain chandeliers, murals on the walls, ceilings, and floors, and every ornamental style imaginable. Pictures aren't allowed inside, but I'm sure you could find official pictures online. It's so far over the top! Next, we drove on to Oberammergau for a quick visit. This is where the famous Passion Play is performed every ten years. The next one will be in 2020, so you can start making plans. There are 5000 inhabitants in the town, and 2500 of them are in the cast. This tradition has something to do with the town citizens promising God that they would tell the story of Jesus forever, if he would let them live through the Black Plague centuries ago. Apparently, they lived, because they're still performing. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that it's their claim to fame and only apparent source of jobs and income. Admission: I couldn't find our bus when it was time to leave! For all of you who usually follow me because I know where I'm going; I am deeply humiliated and psychologically destroyed. Maybe my sense of direction doesn't work on this continent?! There. I didn't have to admit it...none of you would have known. Thank goodness they waited on me. Off to the highlight of the day...Neuschwanstein Castle. As castles always are, it's on the side of a big hill, and there's no good way to get there. I understand the value of that during a siege, but we're just tourists! We're unarmed and we're spending money; you'd think they'd build a good way to get to the entry...maybe an escalator in the side of the mountain. Our tour bus dropped us off in the little village at the bottom of the hill. We had time for a quick lunch (one last time for sauerkraut and sausage). Then it was time to choose which way to get to the castle. There were 3 ways to get there, but they all required anywhere from 10-40 minutes walking uphill. I'm building up leg muscles, but I didn't see any reason to work on it today, so I took a small bus up part way and finished with the 10 minute walk. (They don't tell you there will also be a total of 165 steps leading to the top floor of the castle.) Most of the castles over here were built back in the 12th or 13th centuries, but this one was built in the 1800's. It was meant to be a showpiece, not a fortress, so it really looks kind of like the "Medieval Times" building in Schaumberg, Illinois! King Ludwig was declared crazy and then mysteriously died before all of the interior rooms were finished The Linderhof is Rococo style, but this one is mainly Byzantine style. The decor looks fairly Middle Eastern with the ornamentation painted with patterns instead of gold covered. My favorite part was his dining room. He lived here alone, and didn't want to see his servants, so he designed a special dining room table. It is very fancy and the tabletop is made of alabaster. It sits in the middle of the room on top of an elevator of some sort. The servants would lower the table to the floor below where they would set the place settings and the food, and then they would crank it back up into his dining room where he would sit down and eat...alone. He insisted it was always set for 4. Once again, we couldn't take pictures on the inside. Just like Disney, the exit route takes you through several different gift shops, the American way! It was a long day, and we returned to Munich at 7:00. I wasf really glad I took this tour, because I had wanted to see this place for a long time. This whole trip makes me think I want to take a world history class. Somehow, I got through high school, college, and grad school without a world history class! Better late than never.

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Photos

Neuschwanstein Castle
Walt Disney saw this castle on a trip through Europe in the mid 1900's, and decided to use it as an inspiration for his fairy tale castles.

Marien's Bridge
This is across a gorge from Neuschwanstein. I was standing on it when I took the earlier picture of the castle. I wondered what the weight limit was, because it was packed with tourists.

Linderhof Hunting Lodge
There are beautiful gardens and reflecting pools out front.

Hohenschwaungau Castle
This is nearby, and it is where Ludwig grew up. We didn't go inside, but it was pretty nice from the outside!