My wife and I spent our last full day in Munich by taking a bus excursion to the Wittelsbach castles of Linderhof and Neuschwanstein.  The latter is one of the most famously photographed castles in the world, and a “model” for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.  Both sit amid gorgeous alpine mountains, lakes and forests.  Linderhof is the smaller and older of the two, in a more conservative and flamboyantly rococo architectural style.  The various rooms are almost overpoweringly opulent in the guilded wood carvings and extraordinary colors, with a “mirror” room that, despite its modest dimensions, gives the appearance, with huge mirrors on opposite walls (like Versailles, and intentionally) of being much larger.  Out front, a beautiful gold fountain erupts on the hour in tall columns of water.  Neuschwanstein, of course, was the home, though only briefly, of “mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  It remains incomplete, since it was left that way when the king, aged only 40 years, died under mysterious circumstances after being deposed due to mental illness in June 1886.  He virtually worshipped the great German composer Richard Wagner, and the large wall paintings in several of the major completed rooms of Neuschwanstein depict scenes from various Wagner operas.  Tragically, the king died before any of them could be performed in the newly finished concert hall within the castle, whose extraordinary acoustics were demonstrated by our tour guide.  I should point out that, on the guided tours inside both castles, photography and video recording are forbidden.  This will come as a major disappointment to shutterbugs, but when you consider the number of visitors in what are often relatively crowded rooms, the absence of anyone fussing over a perfect pose or shot (and, especially, electronic flashes going off all over the place) becomes rather a blessing for all concerned.  Of course, as the castle management probably intends, you can always purchase a color picture book of the castle (offered in many different  languages) from the souvenir shop.  Our bus tour guide highly recommended eating lunch at a local restaurant, the Müller, though less expensive offerings can be had, even along the walking path up the hill to the castle from the small town below it (where the buses must park).  Time is tightly organized on these tours and, in our case, a lingering lunch at the Müller left us without enough time to take the extended walk behind Neuschwanstein to the Marien Bridge, from which spectacular photos can be taken of the castle.

Robert Apfelzweig
Foster City, California, USA