On Sunday, May 30 we all toured the castle of Neuschwanstein built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria from 1869 to 1886. King Ludwig (1845 - 1886) was known as "crazy Ludwig" because of his obsession with opera among other things. The castle is decorated with murals depicting scenes from Wagnerian operas. The singer's room, shown below, contains murals of the Parsifal story. Ludwig was a poor king who taxed his people too heavily and did not competently manage the affairs of state. He was eventually deposed and drowned under mysterious circumstances on June 13, 1886 in the Lake of Starnberg.
Castle Neuschwanstein
King Ludwig II
The Singer's Room in Castle Neuschwanstein
We had lunch at a nice little restaurant outside the castle. The older fellow at the next table was dressed in traditional Bavarian garb and even had a dachsund with him. Kathleen and I went into the tourist shop where I tried on a Bavarian hat for fun.
That evening Kim prepared a fabulous raclette cheese dinner with potatoes, mustard, and pickled onions. Raphael entertained us all with comic antics that had Kathleen in stitches. Kim's husband Key, a fine violinist, was out that evening performing in Munich. We enjoyed some traditional Bavarian yodeling music from an old 78 recording played on a victrola. I have prepared an audio recording (182 kilobytes) in QuickTime format for you to download and enjoy.