They Called Him Mad, But He Gave His All for Tourism!!

Hell, You'd Be "Mad" Too If You Saw The Price Tags!!

Ludwig II of Bavaria lived in a time of Romance - to the extreme. The repressed Victorian England element traveled as far as Bavaria and it affected young Ludwig greatly. There were songs about love and plays about majesty - and operas. And Richard Wagner.

Wagner was far more than an inspiration to Ludwig. He was almost his raison d'etre. To Ludwig, the right of kings was absolute. The Ring of the Niebeling, Valhalla, Siegfried and Brunhilde was not just legends: they were HERITAGE!

So to the consternation of his parents, Ludwig dreamed - and built. The three most photographed sites in all of Germany today are his work: Herrenchiemsee, Neuschwanstein and Linderhof.

Herrenchiensee was built as a tribute the the most "absolute monarch" Louis XIV and his Versailles. It's hall of mirrors is longer. It has hundreds of gilded rooms. Ludwig lived in it exactly 3 days.

Linderhof was a bizarre conglomeration of fantasies: topped by Atlas holding up the world, there was an underground grotto with frescoes on the ceilings and shell-shaped boats.

But it was Neuschwanstein that caught everyone's imagination: it was the epitome of romance and legend. It MUST have been Disney's inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle!

Ludwig's fantasies obviously strained Bavaria's economy - he was held prisoner in Linderhof and was visited only by a psychiatrist. He escaped his captors and was found dead on this day, June 13 (our Friday the 13th!) at 11:30PM in the lake.