GERMANY - Mad King and Madding Crowd

I have now travelled down by train to Munich for a few days and with today being the Ascension Day public holiday here, I had planned to get a train up into the Bavarian Alps and do a bit of hiking. However, the weather has not really played ball. The forecast was 100% chance of light rain, turning to heavy rain and most importantly visibility was shown as poor. There really is no point going up into the mountains if you can't see anything. 

So instead I braved the tourist masses (1.5 million a year) and got a train to Fuessen to visit "Mad" King Lugwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle. 

At Fuessen station, the tourist masses queued to catch the shuttle bus for the 2.5 mile journey to the castle. I of course had a wander around the town and then walked following the cycle path. 

Fuessen

As this was a last minute trip, I hadn't bought a ticket in advance and with it being a public holiday I wasn't really expecting to be able to go inside but there was space on the 2:30pm English language tour so I duly paid my €21 entrance fee at the ticket office at the bottom of the hill. The tourist masses then either paid €5 for another shuttle bus up the hill, or paid more for a horse drawn carriage ride - but the lady in the ticket office obviously sensing I was having none of that, gave me a map showing the footpath up to the castle entrance.

There were quite a lot of people on the tour, but the guide was very good and I would recommend a visit although maybe not on a public holiday. 

The castle was built as a private retreat for the King, somewhere he could escape to, almost in a fantasy world away from his official court. It was started in 1869 but as Ludwig II died in 1886 the castle was never finished. The Bavarian royal family just tidied up what had been completed and opened it to the public almost straight away with the castle proving to be a nice little earner until control passed to the Bavarian state at the end of WW1. The House of Wittelsbach still, however, gain an income from nearby Hohenschangau Castle.

They don't allow photography or filming inside - which actually made a nice change, not having to jostle with the Instagrammers flicking their hair back and making sure the camera gets their best side in front of a vase they know nothing about - I know, I'm so cynical.

But as you can imagine, in a castle built in the late 1800's its very over the top, the chandeliers are all crown shaped studded with imitation glass jewels.

View of the Alpsee from the castle balcony

If you don't know the sad story of Ludwig II, he was quite introverted and did not really take well to public life after ascending to the throne at the age of 19. His ministers therefore found him quite difficult to deal with. In 1886 at the age of 40 a group of ministers conspired to depose the King by declaring him insane and unfit to rule. He was eventually taken into house arrest and a day later both he and one of his doctors were found dead in Lake Starnberg. Officially he commited suicide but as he was a good swimmer, many people over the years have suspected foul play.

Having got my bearings, I walked back to Fuessen via the Schwansee (Swan Lake) and a track through the forest, once again far away from the madding crowds.

There will be more from King Ludwig II and the Bavarian Royal Family tomorrow in Munich!