I've been to more than a few places in the world and seen a lot of cool stuff in my travels but, at the moment, it all kind of pales before the grandeur that is Neuschwanstein (New Castle of the Swan). This is the "fairy tale" castle which inspired Disney for the various castles in their theme parks. Of course, the Disney versions cannot begin to match the location in which the original sits, where every view takes your breath away...
The castle was the pet project of King Ludwig II, who never got to enjoy it much, as he was certified insane and unfit to rule, then died a few days later. It's my humble opinion that somebody who could orchestrate something so wondrous was probably just misunderstood, and not insane at all. In any event, once he died, all work on his various projects (including Neuschwanstein) were stopped. The rooms that were completed are magnificent, so one can only imagine one the completed palace would have ended up looking like.
As wonderful as the castle is, I was a bit saddened by the poor horses that are forced to haul heavy carts filled with tourists up and down the steep walkway all day long. We were tight on time, and calculated the horse carts were fastest to avoid missing the tour, but I regretted it after just moments of starting out. I didn't want to take the carts back down, and so we hiked the 15 minutes over to the bus stop (which had much better views anyway). If you ever visit, do yourself (and these poor beasts) a favor and take the bus.
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I visited Neuschwanstein last summer (2005), and it was one of the most amazing places i had been to for a long long time, the ambience is sad yet incredibly fairytale like as it was intended to be i would think. I dont usually like visiting castles as i find them quite boring, and i really dont like the usual atmosphere that surrounds a dark and dull castle, whereas Neuschwanstein was so different and ‘modern’ but so unique!
However, i wanted to comment on one thing which you said about King Ludwig being misunderstood rather than insane, i would have to say i agree with you, and to justify this opinion i had help from my father who explained to me while we were visiting that the doctor whom diagnosed Ludwig as being insane was also found dead some days later (or on the same day – cant remember quite correctly), therefore perhaps the doctor was forced to diagnose Ludwig as insane, because if you know Ludwigs history he was quite irrational in using the money of his government because he enjoyed building castles out of pleasure and so perhaps the doctor was killed to keep the secret of Ludwig not actually ever being insane?
anyway, i hope this comment wasnt just a boring piece of information and i hope that i got most of my facts right. but just wanted to let you know that i agreed 🙂
thanks
I still look at Neuschwanstein as one of the most remarkable places that I’ve ever been.
I’m sure that there are many theories as to what actually happened with Ludwig… and perhaps we will never know. All I can ben sure of is that the man was an incredible artist, and I’m sad he never got to complete his dream.