The "Mad King tour"

Today found us racing to the main train station on the Ubahn subway to catch a bus for our castle tour. We spent the day riding through parts of Bavaria in the mountains. Again, the views were stunning! First stop, Neuschwanstein Castle, built by Mad Kung Ludwig. This is the castle that inspired Walt Disney to create the Cinderella castle in the animated movie and later the one in the theme parks. Now, we were disappointed to see half the outside covered in scaffolding as they work on it, but the other side if it and the inside was fantastic. This guy was a richer-than-rich kid who spent all his family's money on making fabulous castles. In fact, he ran the royal family into debt and they got so disgusted they had a doctor who had never seen him declare him insane so they could put him in a home and stop his out of control spending. Some health care plan he must have had with a diagnosis like that without an office visit. The area below the castle is a cute little village if souviner shops and food stands disguised as houses. This is all in the mountains. After leaving here back on the bus to a mountain town with a name way too long to remember or spell. In the fields on the way we saw many alpine style houses with beautiful window boxes full of flowers. Some of them are attached to the cow barns so in winter it is easier to get to the cows and the heat from them helps warm the house. Ewwwwwww... Lastly we stopped at Linderhoff, the castle that Mad King Ludwig built and lived in first as an adult. This guy really liked himself-mirrors and gold plated everything with muraled walls, ceilings and furniture. Beautiful fountains and gardens. Finally back on the bus to the Ubahn and to the apartment. Last night in Munich-tomorrow on a bus for 4.5 hours to Praque. I just mastered the euro and started to pay with coins (they have 1,2,20,50 cent pieces and 1 and 2 euro coins) and had picked up a little German ( quick, who remembers what "tuna" is?). Now it will be Czech and crowns ( that's their money)