the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

06 September 2009. On the second day, we went to Germany's most famous castle, Neuschwanstein. It's especially famous because Walt Disney patterned the Disney castle logo after it. It was built by "crazy" King Ludwig in the 1800's, with each room themed after one of Richard Wagner's operas (you can imagine what a big fan he was). Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside the castle, but it was indeed whimsical with one room having a thousand swans (on the walls, chairs, vase--guess which opera?) and one passage built as an artificial cave. Too bad the king only lived there a hundred or so days before he died mysteriously (murdered, according to my theory). The other smaller castle between the lakes is also opera-themed. Instead of going up the road like the busloads of tourists, Michael had the brilliant idea of hiking up to the castle by the river with the really cool waterfalls. Lunch was by the alpine lake--and yes, it's even more magnificent than ...