Page 213 - WDT INTERACTIVE

wooded paved pathway to the castle. Halfway up
Left: Portrait of King Ludwig II, “The Mad
King of Bavaria,” hanging in the castle gift
shop.
View from the castle parapets of Ho-
henschwangau village below and Lake
Alpsee beyond.
we stopped at a trail-side stand and, heeding Dani’s
advice -- “They’re the reason I’m here today.” – bought
some “Quarkballchen,” a kind of deep-fried donut.
Fueled up for the next half-mile, we followed Dani as
she narrated the Neuschwanstein story.
This was the same path that King Ludwig II himself
walked as a boy before the current castle existed.
Ludwig was Neuschwanstein’s creator and the two
are inextricably entwined.
Born in 1845, Ludwig spent much of his youth
in what’s now called Hohenschwangau Castle, a
revamped fortress on a ridge overlooking Hohen-
schwangau village. Mostly ignored by his royal
parents, he grew up enamored of art and mythology,
Round Table legends and mighty deeds. These boyish
passions only grew with age. So much so that Ludwig
become himself legendary, the so-called “Mad King of
Bavaria.”
Ludwig was crowned at this father’s death in 1864.
He was only 18. His family had ruled Bavaria for 700
years. Within five years, he began construction of
Neuschwanstein. Meant to harken back to a Medieval
ideal, it was in fact a paean to mythology and ego; a
flight of fancy; a Disneyland castle begun 32 years
before Disney was born. Neuschwanstein didn’t
inspire fairy tales, it was inspired by them.
While Neuschwanstein was built upon the ruins
of two 11th century fortifications, Ludwig turned to
theater set designer Christian Jank for architectural
advice, not historians. Ultimately, the plans were so
grandiose and costly that Ludwig began to bankrupt
his family. Even as Bavaria lost a war and its identity
as separate from Prussia, he kept on building and kept
on borrowing money. It was still unfinished when he
died in 1886. Mad indeed.
Our castle tour entrance time was from 2:10-2:14.
Dani warned us repeatedly: You miss that window,
you’re out of luck; the castle is booked solid. She
gathered our group by the entrance, next to a digital
timer. When it hit 2:10 our group, now mixed with a
couple of others, surged into the castle courtyard.
Neuschwanstein is run by a local organization
and local guides are mandatory; interior photos are
prohibited. While it looks imposing and has 115
rooms on multiple levels (Ludwig originally planned
for more than 200), only 17 rooms were completed
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