Fairytale Castles

Our second very full day in Munich was spent on a tour of two nearby fairytale castles built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He ascended the throne very young (at eighteen), and was known for his very eccentric behaviour. He was actually later deposed from the throne on the grounds of 'mental illness', and then he died very shortly after under suspicious circumstances.

He was definitely eccentric. He spent much of his life devoted towards constructing (or commissioning the construction of) elaborate fairytale castles, for which he is now famous (and beloved by the German tourist industry).

Read more about him here on wikipedia. He's a very interesting man.

We visited two of his castles that day. The first, called Schloss Linderhof. This isn't it, but it's a gorgeous little example of the Bavarian houses we saw nearby.

While we were waiting for our tour guide to sort out our tickets, we amused ourselves at the nearby souvenir shop.

Does this suit him better?

We started the short walk to the castle.

And spotted more swans along the way. Incidentally, one of the nicknames by which King Ludwig was known was 'Swan King'. He loved swans.

And then we reached the castle, and stood there oohing and aahing for a few moments, before grabbing the camera and trying to capture everything at once. I may have gone a little crazy. It's just so beautiful. Extravagantly, self-indulgently beautiful.

We're suckers for symmetry in a garden (see here)

After we entered the castle, we started snapping pictures again before our guide entered and told us photos were forbidden. So here are our naughty photos, taken in innocence, I assure you!

The rooms are ridiculously extravagant, and an amazing sight to behold. This was sort of Ludwig's bachelor pad. One bedroom, one music room, one single-person dining room. In fact the dining table itself was state of the art at the time. It was an elevator! So Ludwig could have the table lowered into the kitchen to be laden with food by his servants and then raised back up to him so he wouldn't have to see anyone and could dine completely unobserved. Incredibly self-indulgent, but you kind of love him for his eccentricity.

If you ever have the chance to visit southern Germany, go and see this castle. It's pretty incredible.

And then we were back enjoying the incredible gardens.

This is the detail on all of the balconies.

One day I'm going to have an outdoor staircase like this. A girl can dream, right?

Just as we were about to leave, someone turned the fountain on full. It was fantastic!

And then we had to temper all of that beauty with some comic relief at the next souvenir shop we found.

And to come full circle, more admiring of the little Bavarian farmhouses. In this case, turned cafe.

Then it was time to travel on to the next, much grander fairytale castle. And appropriately, the passing countryside was misty and soft and beautiful.

Stay tuned for more fairytale action!