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I visited Neuschwanstein and climbed every last one of the 160 plus steps in the process. We arrived on site just as the last van of tourists had gone up to the castle for the last guided tour of the day. I was bummed, couldn't believe that I was there but had missed the ride by a couple of minutes. The very hale and husky, young, german girl selling tickets said, you could always walk up there. Foolish me, said great idea, and I took off on foot. GRRRRRROAN. ... I called it a mountain, the locals scoffed and said it is a hill.... whatever it is, it is very, very steep and I was some-kind-of-dragging by the time I got there so you can imagine my reaction to all those interior steps and stairways. Mercifully, the caretaker was gracious enough to provide a ride back down the mountain/hillside once the tour was finished. Although the walk up to the entrance, then all those steps were, indeed, brutal, especially at the end of the day, it was worth the effort. I can well understand why Walt Disney was so enchanted with the castle and the lovely fairy tale setting.

I also went to Linderhof, another of the three castles Ludwig built. Versailles served as the inspiration for Linderhof and it is the only one that was completely finished when he died. While it is very beautiful, classic in design and scale, it is luxurious, over the top gaudy in some areas yet ornately elegant in others with beautiful, park-like grounds.

Ludwig was a stone-cold Loon who broke the treasury of Bavaria with his excesses during his short lifetime. He was spoiled, petulant, paranoid, theatrical and selfish. He died young and under mysterous circumstances. To avoid having contact with the serving staff at Linderhof the dining room had a (?) hydraulic system allowing the dining table to be lowered to the kitchen on the lower level, filled with each new course then raised back up to the dining room level.

Still, Ludwig was a dreamer, most probably gay, and ahead of his time in many ways. He certainly had a eye for site selection, too, the locations he chose are spectacular. His castles have many interesting, innovative and surprisingly modern features, including some very large windows. The kitchen at Neuschwanstein was especially advanced with hot and cold running water. In fact, the castle had a hot air/central heating system, running water on all four floors, modern bathrooms. Ludwig communicated with his domestic staff by means of an elaborate electic bell system and he had telephones on the upper floors, there was a lift for transporting food and supplies within the castle. It was similar to the much larger one used to bring materials up to the site during construction. From Neuschwantstein's hillside location, Ludwig could look out across the town of Schwangau and see his family ancestral castle called Hohenschswangau on an adjacent hillside.