The Swan (Fairy Tale) King

Over the next 2 days we learnt a lot about Mad King Ludwig ( aka The Swan/Fairy Tale King) he ruled as the King of Bavaria from 1864 (at the age of 18) until 1886 when he died in strange circumstances. On Monday, we traveled to Chiemsee and took the boat to Herreninsel, where he built a palace like Versaille. We opted to walk around the island with Mike, Katie, Lucille, and Mickey while the others did the Palace Tour. A beautiful island with the Palace in the middle and there are more than 10 bat species on the island. Ludwig apparently only spent 10 days on the island and only spent 1 night in the Palace. All his employees/ servants had to keep their heads lowered when around him as he did not want to see facial expressions. Monday night, we all met up for dinner in a local restaurant to sample Bavarian food. It did not disappoint. Tuesday saw us say goodbye to Katie as she had to go back to work. A brief but special visit. We headed off to Neuschwanstein Castle. Construction started in 1869, and it was completed in the late 1880s. It was created as a medival castle, and the interiors are all based on Wagner's operas. Ludwig, as a child, had identified himself with the swan knight Lohengrin. The swan is also a heraldic animal and is therefore very present in the furnishings, etc. In 1866, Bavaria lost the war to Prussia, and Ludwig was therefore no longer a sovereign ruler. He, therefore, started planning his own Kingdom that included castles and him as King. He spent 107 days here. Today, over 1.4 million people visit the castle.Read more