If I’m being completely honest, my true desire to visit Munich didn’t come from an interest in beer or pretzels. It all comes from my teenage obsession with the Gabriel Knight video game series, specifically The Beast Within, which is set in and around Munich, and centres on the Mad King/Fairytale King/Swan King/Moon King – King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Since the mid-90s I’ve dreamed of visiting his castle Neuschwanstein, and today this little fanboy got his wish. And I discovered that Ludwig himself was nothing more than another fanboy, building castles to hide himself away from the rest of the world.
We took a Gray Line bus tour through the incredible Bavarian countryside, leaving Munich and heading south towards the Alps.
The hills are alive!
Our first stop was Ludwig’s Linderhof castle, a small but perfectly preserved getaway for the reclusive King. The impressive and intricate interiors were revealing – this was a building designed for someone who wanted to be alone. All the decorations recall Ludwig’s obsession with Louis XIV of France and the castle was dedicated to the Sun King. While surrounding his bedroom with symbols of the Sun King, Ludwig named himself the Moon King.
Next stop was a quaint little Bavarian town called Oberammergau where we did a little shopping.
As we pulled into Howenschwangau, another town and home to Ludwig’s childhood family castle, I was kinda buzzing with nerdy excitement, annoying Marthese with lots of useless Ludwig facts. We ate a little lunch and then climbed up the hill to the main attraction…
Howeshwangau Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle was as amazing in reality as I’d hoped, since staring at it in 800×600 resolution on an old CRT monitor. The castle truly embodied Ludwig’s desire to create his own fantasy world to escape his real life – escaping from his increasingly impotent rule, his conflict of faith and sexuality, and his increasingly eccentric and anti-social behaviour. Like Linderhof, Neuchswanstein contained no images of the King himself, but is decorated in intricate paintings of German mythology and Opera. In true fanboy fashion, he dedicated the Castle to his friend and obsession, Richard Wagner.
We could not take photos of the interiors, but they were remarkably preserved. The Germans do these attractions right – all movement through the castle must be as part of a tour which is scheduled and adhered to, and no photos allowed inside, making the crowds flow in a far more tolerable way than at other European attractions. The experience today could not be any further from the mad cluster of bodies inside Versailles.
On the bus back to Munich now, nearly 2 hours to go. Watching the countryside out the window, I wonder if Marthese and I will ever want to come home.
Elias Rambles 
Hope my mother doesn’t scroll down this far. All class, Webber.
I was going to put it on Facebook but I thought this would be less offensive! Anyway I got real excited when I saw the photo and said to Shara “they’re at that castle in the butt tweet!”