I have to admit that it has been a long-held desire of mine to visit Neuschwanstein Castle ever since I saw a photograph of it in one of those kitschy Castles of Europe wall-calendars in my local bookshop. On my last day in Munich, I decided to make that dream come true. I took a train into the deep south of Bavaria, only a few miles from the Austrian border, to very feet of the Alp Mountains. In 1869, King Ludwig II of Bavaria decided that the mountains of his childhood home needed nothing less than a fairy-tale castle to fulfill his fanciful imagination. This palace, one of four he started to build, was designed first by an artist, not an architect. The exterior is a romantic exaggeration of the Romanesque style, with some Gothic influences, and was later to become the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. The interior is dedicated to the world of Richard Wagner’s opera’s and as such is an incredible embodiment of the worlds of Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Parsifal, and Lohengrin, all of which are old European legends and fairytales. Every surface is covered in vivid figures of swans, heraldic motifs, and scenes from the fairytales. The entire castle is beyond description. You are not allowed to take photos inside, but here you can see some of it. I have said it before, but the photos simply cannot capture how absolutely amazing this place is, and I couldn’t be more sincere in saying that no one should ever pass up a chance to visit this castle, should the opportunity present itself.
