While in Munich, we decided to take a day trip to Fossen to see Neuschwanstein Castle, commonly knows as either the Disney castle or the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle. It was built by King Ludwig II (known as Mad King Ludwig) who is known for bankrupting the country to build fairy tale castles. Our guide said that he didn't bankrupt the country, just himself, though. He was also known for being insane. This is also disagreed upon since he apparently was given cocaine for tooth pain and then starting drinking heavily.
So, there is still controversy around his reign. Even how he died is unknown other than he drown under mysterious circumstances. Anyway, we took a guided tour there. A little ways into the "tour" we realized that we shouldn't have paid for the tour part since it used public transport the whole way. We could have easily navigated ourselves there and back. Oh well, the guide was interesting and seemed to know a good bit about Ludwig and this way we didn't have to figure out all the time tables (but we really aren't organized tour people).
We took a tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle but didn't have time to tour the castle Ludwig grew up in, which was across the way from his castle. The Neuschwanstein was never finished as Ludwig died. Also, Ludwig was apparently obsessed with Wagner so there a lot of scenes on the walls from his operas. There is also a concert hall in the castle (and a little cave).
The tour of the castle was quite quick. During the summer, there must be tons of tourists that come to see the castle because there were three lines set up outside the castle and you had to wait until your number/time was called before you were allowed in. The guide moved you through the rooms quite quickly and there was someone waiting to close the door behind you. There are also two shops. Our tour guide (not castle guide) told us that the second one was cheaper. We didn't really look at either one since we wanted to go wander around the grounds.
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