Day 9 – Mad King Ludwig

Declared mad and deposed as king on 12 June 1886 and found drowned with the doctor who had declared him insane without examination the next day, King Ludwig would today be described today as a creative genius. You wouldn’t want him as your king, but as, say, a Hollywood director (under the aegis of a studio suit), he would produce something special. This is why, of course, Disney used King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein castle as its inspiration for Cinderella’s castle. Not only the outside I suspect, but also the inside. If you were a german administrator in 19th century and your king decided to reconstruct a cave in his new palace, I suppose it is entirely reasonable that you think him insane. We didn’t see any of the other castles along the romantic road, but we saw the most famous. Maybe another time – when we don’t have children – we’ll cycle down the romantic road stopping at every castle and staying at each town along the way.

We did go to Fussen (can’t find the umlaut on this keyboard), a beautiful town at the foot of both the romantic road and the Forggensee. Aware that Tilly is already on to her last book and predicting that the places we go to next are less likely to sell books in english, we also found her a big book to read.

In the afternoon, we went to the summer toboggan. Nancy was much (much) faster than Tilly. Tilly asked Nancy whether she had braked when it told you to. This explains a lot in their lives. Both had seen the signs advising “brake”. Nancy had assumed it was mere advice (and hence did not apply to her) and Tilly assumed it was a rule that should be adhered to. I think Tilly would assimilate well in Germany!

We went cycling a couple of times, and Tilly went horse riding again. Finished the day with a swim in the magnificent pool. I also finished a book (Besserwisser), a story about skinheads after the fall of the wall.

It will be a great shame to leave this place. We all want to spend longer. This is particularly the case once we learnt that all of southern Germany’s schools breaks up today and the roads southwards (clue) are packed tomorrow. What was already going to be a long day is likely to be even longer.