Castle in the air

Avoid frilly language and clichés — that is the advice travel writers receive the most.

All that is fine, until you sit down to write about the Schloss Neuschwanstein.

When it comes to this castle in southern Germany, plain language just won't do.

After all, it has inspired Disney's Cinderella castle; it was also where Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang landed on its quest to free Grandpa and the children from the evil Baron Bomburst; further, the castle is described in the book 1001 Buildings to See Before You Die as a “fairy-tale'' castle.

It was also one of the few buildings that made it to the finals of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

So, how does a travel writer describe such a celebrity castle?

Let's begin with a hypothesis: You are winding your way through the lush countryside, looking out for a castle clinging on to a mountainside and knowing exactly what it looks like.

Yet, when it finally comes into view, you are still awed.

King among castles

No matter how many pictures you have seen or how touristy this castle actually is, one look at it and you realise why this is the king among castles — they don't come much prettier than this.

Sturdier, perhaps, but who needs sturdy when perched on a mountain?

Bigger, perhaps, but Schloss Neuschwanstein's seeming fragility is deceptive, as the castle is really rather large and well built, but its slender turrets make it look somewhat toy-like.

But prettier? No way.

Anyway, enough of the purple prose. Let's get down to the facts:

Schloss Neuschwanstein was the brainchild of King Ludwig II, who ruled as King of Bavaria from 1864 to 1886.

The term “ruled'' can only be used in the loosest sense, as he was — much like modern royalty — more or less only a figurehead, and the term brainchild needs to be re-evaluated as well, as the king, to coin a phrase, was away with the fairies, or — to put it officially — mad.

Shy and reclusive, he ascended the throne when he was 18 years old and was, by his own admission, quite unprepared and untrained for the job.

When excused from his royal duties, he tended to live in his own fantasy world.

In his castle, Lindenhof, he spent time in the underground grotto — floating around on a mechanical swan while an orchestra played his favourite Wagner music.

The swan was the heraldic animal of the Ludwig family.

Craving a home away from it all and guided by his eccentric little ideas, he started planning Schloss Neuschwanstein at a young age and laid the foundation stone in 1869.

He moved in as soon as the gatehouse was built, although it took quite some time before he could take up residence in the main castle.

Operatic themes

The designs were capricious, mostly based on Wagner's operatic themes.

The king and the composer had an almost symbiotic relationship.

Ludwig promoted and financed Wagner's musical extravaganzas and Wagner indulged the king by basing his stories on Ludwig's fantasies, such as shown in Tannhaeuser, the opera about the swan knight.

The themes inspired by medieval myths, legends and opera were, however, limited to the picture walls inside the castle.

As for the comforts, they were utterly modern and totally worldly.

The royal residence was fitted with central heating, every floor had running water and the toilets were equipped with automatic flushes.

There's more. An electric bell system alerted the servants to the king's every need, there were telephones and even a mechanical lift to carry food to the various floors.

So, even if you call the man mad, he knew enough to install all the comforts.

Unfortunately, his lifestyle — extravagant even for a king — whittled away his country's resources and he was finally declared insane in 1886.

But life — or death — decided to keep Ludwig legendary.

Just one day after being declared incompetent, his body was found in the lake at the foot of Schloss Neuschwanstein along with that of the psychiatrist who had declared him insane.

How, why and who killed them remains a mystery.

Without his guiding light, work on the castle was stopped — he had lived in it only for 172 days — although as a visitor you will not realise the extent to which it was left unfinished: only one third of the interior was fully finished and the entire third floor remained empty.

Still, only seven weeks after his death, the castle was opened to the public — probably to recover some of the expenses.

The irony, however, is telling. For, what Ludwig had planned as a retreat to keep him away from the common folk soon turned into an attraction that people began visiting in thousands.

Today, at the height of the season, some 6,000 people visit the castle each day, climbing the steep hill (30 minutes if you are fit) or taking the horse-drawn carriage to a drop-off point some ten minutes from the entrance.

The tourism circus in the village at the foot of the hill and the Disney resemblance can't be denied — the queues for tickets and the prettiness of the castle may make a visit seem like a day out in a theme park.

Yet, the castle ranks up there with other architectural wonders of the world and is worth a visit.

— Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey is a UAE-based freelance writer

Trip tips

Go there ... Schloss Neuschwanstein ... From the UAE

From Dubai

Munich is the closest international airport to Schloss Neuschwanstein, just an hour's drive away.

Package includes return economy flight on Emirates; four nights stay in a superior double room at the Koenigshof Hotel on double sharing basis and including breakfast; return airport transfers.

Fare from Dh6,550

— Information courtesy: Dnata Holidays. Ph: 800 8118