UP IN THE MOUNTAINS LIVED 

    A PRINCE .....

The ironies of history can be ruthlessly cruel. Born a prince, ascended the throne at 18. Obsessive about composer Richard Wagner, getting the virtuoso to move his kingdom's capital is one of the first thing he does. Two years his country is  overrun by an expanding empire and virtually converted into a vassal. Reality and the real world out there clearly sucks. So the young king apparently decides to withdraw from it all and goes looking for a remote but stunningly beautiful mountain top to build his dream project! 

All those thinking along the lines of  secret military training centre or stock-holing of armaments and armouries to wrest back power from the evil invaders, kindly exit here. Because? Because the story goes on to acquire an incredible mix of Disney dimensions and chilling nasty machinations. Because the king goes on to build a castle! There is the bestowing of a new title, 'The Mad King', the entry of a psychiatrist clearly on the payroll of someone or many-one and the most mysterious whodunit climax. And it's all facts! Historical too at that.

Sometimes I would like to know what history has to say of the times we live in. But whatever it says, it certainly cannot match the story of how Neuschwanstein Castle was born. Two and a half hours drive from Munich, the eye and mind dazzling castle in Bavaria, is every fairy tale lover's imagination of what a castle should come true. But with a story that doesn't end with live-happily-ever-after. Ironically, it is said that Neuschwanstein is said to be the real-life inspiration for the Disney classic, The Magic Kingdom. 

The Prince was Ludwig 11, born in 1845 to Maximilian II of Bavaria and Marie of Prussia. In the absence of an overload of how-to-bring-up-a-prince books, the parents brought up the prince, and his brother Otto, in what they apparently thought was the right way to bring up royal heirs - duty above all.  Emotion clearly was given the heave-ho. Unfortunately, Ludwig 11 was cut from a different cloth; he liked music, play acting and everything creative. He was also said to be a loner. So what would a barely 20 something creative soul, deprived of true sovereignty do? Create his own fantasy, build a castle it seems. And he chose to do that in his own unique way.

The construction of Neuschwanstein Castle began in 1869 and continued long after his death in 1886. All those in India despairing of ever getting their builder flat in in the promised time and making the rounds of court corridors, can take solace from this particular history! Neuschwanstein was estimated to be completed in three years. Hah! King Ludwig 11 could move into the palace only 15 years later, all the while living in the gateway building.  But he was the builder himself some, especially the harassed we-have-booked-a-builder-flat lot, might say.  Right. Just that the crazily creative king wanted his fantasy palace equipped with the latest technology of the time. Running water( hot and cold), electric bells to summon the servants, hot air central heating system, telephones and and above all, a lift! 

The 'two years' curse came into play again because 24 months after moving into the castle, King Ludwig 11 died. Left this world or rather was made to leave the world - the truth is unlikely to be ever known. All the while the young king seemed to be retreating further and further from reality and the world and leading a lifestyle that certainly didn't please many people. To begin it seemed that for  decade or so before his mysterious death, he slept during the day and his day began when the rest of the world retired. Since it must have not been possible to say 'off with his head' and be done with, a psychiatrist Bernhard Von Gudden was given the task of ascertaining the sanity of the king. Von Gudden and his team declared King Ludwig 11 unfit to rule. And before he could say Neuschwanstein, he was deposed. Interestingly the name of the castle was then it was called 'Neue Burg Hohenschwangau' after a castle of the same name nearby where the king had spent most his childhood.  The castle acquired its present day name after the king's death. Neuschwanstein translates into 'New Swan Stone'. Any reference to the Wagnerian opera, The Swan Knight is purely intentional!

The psychiatrist having declared the king unfit to rule, chose to go for a walk with the deposed king just three days after his verdict deprived the king of his throne. They walked on the banks of a lake in the palace garden. It was June 13,1886. That was the last time they were seen alive. A few hours later their bodies were retrieved from the Starnberg lake. The psychiatrist, reportedly with marks on his body that showed that he had been attacked. And The Mad King? Declared 'death by drowning'. In a shallow lake, no water found in the lungs and a person said to be a strong swimmer?  Go solve it.

A lonely king deprived of full sovereignty decides to create his own fantasy hideaway world in a spectacularly dramatic castle atop a high cliff, lives in it for two years or so and then is deposed and mysteriously dead. It is more than irony that the castle built as a retreat from reality and the world was opened up to the public within a few weeks after the king's death. And not just that, construction work continued till 1892. Today it is one of the most attractive and visited tourist destination in Germany, with more than a million and a half footfalls every year.

The two and a half hours drive from Munich takes one on the Romantic Road and some of the most scenic surroundings.The gasping can-you-see-that moment comes the Bavarian Alps pops up leading to the inevitable stick your nose the vehicle window and crane your neck to see as far as you can. It's almost like a delightful game. At one moment it recedes far into the distance beyond and an endless meadow fills the distance between you and the Alps. Other times its rows of quaint houses, one so small that it is almost like a doll's house. Another time a lake pops up in the distance, so inviting.  And all the while the Bavarian Alps lord over it all.

Then we are there. The moment you step out of the vehicle, two things strike you simultaneously - the throng of tourists and the unmatched natural beauty around, the first failing to detract from the fact the sense and fulfilling pure happiness, especially with the Neuschwanstein rising up among the forested cliff as if to say, I'm over here, come up! Atop the opposite hill, Schloss Hohenschwangau stands equally tall as if to say, 'brother I was here before you!

For some strange reason all our guides seem to be 'foreigners' barring one who-shall-not-be-named because I wouldn't want to be guided by him ever again. This time its Austin, a one-time music teacher all the way from Dallas, Texas. It's been many, many years since he moved to Germany, first because of his passion to classical music and now because of the quality of life or so he says. Even as Austin gives a brief history of the castle before we break for lunch and head for the climb the clip-clop of the two-horse drawn covered carriage provides the background beat. 

 

 

As we start the climb up to Neuschwanstein, Austin keeps doling dope on its history, its builder, the what, why, when and the now with interesting tidbits. But for me, the best was when, before leaving us at the entry to the castle after finalising when and where to meet after that, he conspiratorially tells us that pictures of the interiors of the castle cannot be taken, but those of outside from within is par for the course. Good man.    

 

And inside. It's a Wagnerian opera all right! Grand, opulent, majestic and everything superlative. A comic contrast, unintentionally of course, was provided by the guide of the Castle with his deadpan, drone like commentary without a single inflection or any variation whatsoever. We tell ourselves that if we had to do the same thing day in and day out, we would do worse. It's just that at times one has a hard time not letting out a laugh or two especially when he is talking about incredible beautiful display of unmatched creativity like a robot, and a bored one at that too. With photography being a strict no-no, it is Wikipedia pics here.

Just got me wondering why did King Ludwig11 choose to sleep through the day and be up through the nights. Finally we reach the viewpoint balcony and one can only resort to the plain prosaic, what a view. Just that, more  than enough.

 

         

 

 

The best view of the castle is definitely from Marienbrucke (Queen Mary's Bridge) suspended 300 feet over the Pollat gorge.It's a mere 12-15 minutes climb up a small hill and suddenly it's a different story altogether. Below the narrow wooden planks floored bridge, the gorge looks minuscule as do the dense forest trees. On one side the Neuschwanstein stares back with its imposing majesticity and on the other Hohenschwangau spreads out into the horizon.

One hears the music much before one sees him. He is singing and playing an instrument that one has never seen before. After the performance he looks up and smiles and before one can say hello, he says you from India right? Smiling nods. You know your sitar? Smiling nods again. Well there is a bit of the sitar here, he says. Sitar and I have an old history. Thankfully, a group of youths are eager to pose with him, I seize the opportunity and walk on. 

 

On the way down, Lake Alpsee starts playing hide and seek through the forest on the left side. It takes some minutes before one realises that there couldn't have been a simpler name for the lake - Alps in the background and see (lake in German) at the bottom. Tada! The poetry is not in the name but in the visuals - simply stunning. 

Lake Alpsee is barely a 10 minutes or so walk from the centre of Hohenschwangau, that is if you don't get distracted by the Bavarian charms around from architecture to souvenir shops.      

 

Once you near the lake, you hold your breath. And let it go after a long, long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's one of those moments when you all want is silence and the view before you. That unfortunately, is not fated to be. Because its not silence but selfies that everybody else seem to be desperately seeking. Have you ever had one of those moments when you actually want something untoward, to a minor degree of course, to happen to some people.  I have no shame in confessing I did and felt not too happy when it didn't happen. There was this big group of Oriental tourists and for some strange reason every single member wanted to stand on a specific spot for the selfie. That particular spot happened to be a large pipe that jutted into the lake before disappearing under the water. So there they were trying to balance on the cylindrical structure, more than often in pairs, armed with selfie sticks. It wasn't funny, it wasn't even clownish, it was totally irritating especially with the exaggerated screams. 

Nature has a way of providing relief and she did in quintuple dose. It started with one duck, soon joined by another. The solo duck first glided almost right up to the edge. The second followed soon and gradually everything else receded into the background watching the two preen, play and circle around. The water was so clean and transparent that but for the little ripples, it could not have been there at all.  

 

 

 

 

The hours pass. The colours begin to change and you know that like it or not, you have to go back......

 

As we drive back, Neuschwanstein stands against the sky. On a melodramatic note - does the soul of Ludwig 11 still haunt the castle and its environs?  But on a more sombre note - was it actually death by drowning or something else altogether?  Deposed and disposed? The mystery continues but in 2014 it was reported that a review of the case was published in the journal, History of Psychiatry which questioned the psychiatrist Von Gudden's conclusion that the King was insane. The review was undertaken by Heinz Hafner, a leading German psychiatrist that Von Gudden's assessment was 'incorrect in form and substance'. Truth, they say, ultimately prevails. Maybe one day the world will get to know of it.