Neuschwanstein

Gruss Gott,
I poked around town today, visited a couple of churches, and mostly shopped.  I do not know how to make that interesting.  The only odd thing is that I had a credit card refused--one that I have used for years in Europe.  Fortunately I had a back up--one with a chip--and that evidently made a difference, so that's news you visitors from the USA can use.
Instead experiencing a boring day shopping, let us visit Neuschwanstein, one of the most popular--with both Germans and foreign tourists--destinations in Germany.  The castle was Ludwig II's last and most cherished project.  Our tour bus arrived at the foot of the hill where one can find many shops, cafes, snack bars, and hotels.  In other words it's another very well organized tourist trap, and the visitor might as well enjoy it.
To get to the castle one can take a shuttle bus up, or if deep-pocketed a horse-drawn carriage, or my choice--a trudge uphill.  This I did for some twenty-five minutes stopping to pant and take the occasional photo.  I had lots of company.  I continued on (uphill) to the Marienbrucke for a spectacular view of the castle and the surrounding countryside.  This is a land of lakes, and updrafts, too, apparently, because hang gliders swooped around high above us.
Down I went again to hang around the castle courtyard until our group gathered for its tour.  See, this is the issue with trying to see Linderhof and Neuschwanstein as a lone traveler.  It's possible, but one must reserve a timed tour, and this is a prime target for coach tours which have priority.
Far off the castle looks wonderful, magical.  Close up it's clear that this is a copy.  Once inside it's even clearer that it's a fantasy of what a rich young man of Romantic sensibilities imagined the Middle Ages were like.
We saw the finished rooms on the tour.  Ludwig lived here just a month or so before they took him into custody.  He wanted to recreate a world of chivalry, heroism, and nobility set to music by Richard Wagner.  Most of the rooms in the castle are tributes to Wagner's operas retelling the ancient mythology of the Germans.  You can find Tanhauser in one room, Lohengrin in another.  Ludwig hoped desperately that Wagner would come and stay with him to provide musical accompaniment for his dreams.  What the king did not want was to share his personal visions with anyone else.
The rooms are beautiful, with wonderful decoration and exquisite paintings.  All the colors and figures are truly lovely, and yet my historian's mind kept whispering "Fake. Fake."  And as beautiful as it all was, I could not help but think it was also pathetic.  Historians know better than anyone that past is past and will never come again.  Better far to find something about the present to embrace or shape.
So on the way back down the hill--getting in a woodland walk shared by a zillion other tourists, I decided to take another path down.  I lost track of my group, couldn't find our meeting place, and was late to the bus--fortunately not the only one, but I was embarrassed.
On the way home our guide related a seriously garbled account of German History, while I watched the Alps and valleys fade away, and we returned to the fertile fields around Munich.
The beer of the day is Hofbrau, which you will see advertised all over Munich and widely featured in beer gardens.  The name translates to Court Brew meaning that this is the sort of beer created for royal courts.  Let's have a sip.  Mmm!  I like this!  It tastes almost Belgian in its richness.  This one is my favorite so far.