NadzJ and DaKrunch stumble on The Legend of the Fairytale King Ludwig

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King Ludwig, insanity and the fairy tale castle

Fussen is like a fairy tale. And the castle you might recognize the Neuschwanstein is actually what the Disney castle is modeled off.
So me and Nadia caught a train there early on the morning of December 23, 2008. I could not find my phone anywhere and we were trying to contact Linda to get it off her. Nadia was even contemplating taking the train back to meet her. Luckily we decided against the idea as Linda messaged us when she got up. I messaged her to ask if she could leave my phone at reception and I didn’t get a response so I hoped she would…

But the ride to Fussen was like a fairytale. The scenery got more and more mountainous and snow started to appear around us (on the ground not the sprinkling kind). I got changed for warmer conditions much to Nadia’s disgust then waited to arrive at the station.

In Fussen we were actually aiming to see King Ludwig’s castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. So King Ludwig who is this guy and why is he so special to the people living between Säuling and Auerberg and between Nesselwang and Trauchgau?

Well he was this guy who became king at 18, ascending the Bavarian throne on March 10, 1864 after his father, King Maximilian II, had died unexpectedly only 53 years old. He could be sure of the support of his subjects: Ludwig, young and attractive, was regarded as the most handsome king and the most popular one with the women of the day.
Anyways around 1886 he was declared insane and was disposed to Berg Palace on the Banks of Lake Starnberg. On June 19, 1886 he mysteriously died in the lake. To this day the circumstances surrounding his death give rise to diverse speculations. Was it an accident while Ludwig was trying to escape, was it suicide or even murder by his political opponents? The records of the secret house archives that could perhaps shed light on the mystery are still closed. Ludwig II experienced Neuschwanstein as a building site enclosed in scaffolding. He never saw it as it presents itself to the eye of the present-day visitor. The construction work was not completed until after his death.
The legend of the fairy-tale king lives on, for Bavaria and guests from all parts of the world.

So we got to Fussen station and found out if we wanted to go to Vienna that night we would have to go via Munich anyway which was sweet as I could pick up the phone if it was there. Once we got to the station we went to an internet café to try and book some accommodation in Vienna. After doing that we caught the bus up to the castles.

We walked all around the castles and the took in the beautiful views - particularly from Mary’s bridge. It was €9 to get into each castle so we decided not to go that avenue - we just snuck into the castles ourselves. We snuck into Neuschwanstein but it proved not to be so interesting so we left so we could get more nicer pictures and walk around the general castle area a bit more. We decided to catch the bus back to Fussen central station by the time it was dark - and so we didn’t miss our train to Vienna.

When we got back to Munich central station we quickly got our bags out then hopped on the S-bahn to the Sheraton. We made it back to the Sheraton and found out Linda had in fact left a phone at reception for me to pick up yaya! Then we made our way down to the station - Munich Haupbahnhof or central station of Munich. We got our bags out of storage and then made our way to the night train that would take us to Vienna, or rather the multiple trains that would. Whew!

ps to see more photos of Fussen check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/dkruchkoff/FussenGermany23December2008?authkey=Gv1sRgCLrOkO_muPLxmwE&feat=directlink

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