Ludwig started to have Neuschwanstein built in 1869 and it took about 20 years to complete, he lived in it for about 6 months before he died. The inside of the castle is of course totally amazing, while the rooms themselves are not that big, the decoration and paintings give it the royal feel. The icing on the cake, as if the castle isn't enough, are the views from the palace, you either look onto the valley, onto the lake or behind, up into the mountains. Unfortunately the day I went it rained all morning, providing nice overcast skies but the clouds hung really low giving the combination of the mountains and clouds a really neat effect.
![View of Verona](FrontNeu.jpg")
This is the front of the Disney castle as you walk in. Besides taking in the sites of the castle the story about Ludwig was pretty interesting. Ludwig II was the King of Bavaria and grew home down the hill in the next castle I went to Hohenschwangau. The story with Ludwig is that he was declared mentally unfit or as the title goes Crazy King Ludwig. When he was building the castles he spent inordinate sums of money and many speculated that he was using the Bavarian tax payers money and draining the region and that's why they stripped him of his title and declared him insane. He was sent to a mental institution and two days later he was found dead supposedly he drowned in a nearby lake but he was suppose to have been excellent swimmer and the water was very shallow...hmmm. After he died it was determined that he had been using his own money to build the castle.
Kinda a sad story really, he was only 40 years old when he died and never married, he was engaged once and broke off the engagement a few days before the wedding...well maybe I don't feel that sorry for him. I guess he was a tall guy to but as to his factual height that's a guess, one tour guide said 6'2", the other 6'4" and of course the last said 6'5". Well if you ever seen some of these palace beds before you've got to wonder how the guy fit and his bed in Neucshwanstein was not that big. Well enought about the sleeping accomodations of the crazy king go take a look at his other bachelor pads.
