I had heard about Mad Ludwig, how he had been deposed because he was “unfit to rule”, and how he was supposed to be crazy. I thought it was all a bit harsh, he couldn’t have been that nutty. Well today, I can see why they chucked this wacko off the throne. The castle he built, while very nice, could only be the work of a madman.
We got up at 7:30 intent on seeing the predecessor to Disneyland (although we weren’t completely aware of it at the time). After breakfast we went off to the little castle, where King Ludwig II (hereafter known as Crazy Ludwig) grew up. It really looked like a castle and it had a real air of history about it. It looked every bit the eight centuries old it was, and was actually rather nice in the interior. After the tour of the small castle we went down, got a small ice cream cone and headed off to the big castle. The big castle looks quite grand from afar, and looks as if it was there for at least eight or nine centuries. However when you get close it looks exactly like the 100 year old castle based on a fairy tale (actually an opera by Wagner, same thing) it is. Since we had half an hour we walked over to a spectacular waterfall. We finally entered the castle. I’m not going to say much about the interior, because I really was nonplussed by it. We went on to the cafe and had a good lunch. We hiked down to the car and took off. We reached our hotel in Stuttgart at about 6:00. We went to the Staatsgalerie museum. It was a really neat museum, both because of its design and because of its collection of art. I’m pretty beat now so I’ll get to bed. I have to get rested, tomorrow we’re going to the Pistenbully plant.