We couldn't come all the way to Germany and not visit the iconic fairytale castle, a picture that I remember hanging in my Oma's hallway all those years ago, so we made a detour on our way to Salzburg.

Neuschwanstein Schloss, which translates to New Swan Stone Castle, is in the small town of Fussen. It was built by King Ludwig, who was said to be either a tad eccentric or just completely nuts, there's evidence of both in this castle.

The view of the outside from the nearby bridge is truly spectacular, it's no wonder Walt Disney modelled the famous Disney castle on it. The interior is just as amazing with every surface being intricately decorated, it's just unfortunate that he died before completion, meaning only 16 out of the 100 plus rooms were finished. Thankfully one of these was Ludwig's private theatre. An enormous room with a stage area for musicians fronted by a ballroom for acrobats and dancers and one balcony box seat for Ludwig. Apparently he didn't like the company of others! The stage area had a beautiful mural depicting a forest and deer that looked oddly similar to Bambi, and with good reason, It was the inspiration for the movie.

One other extremely memorable room, and one that was also used against him in the case of his sanity, was the cave hallway. Through a doorway in his bedroom was literally a cave which apparently had 5 secret doors in it, we could only spot about 3, that connected it to adjoining rooms.

Ludwig's favourite animal was the swan which was a running theme throughout the castle, from paintings on the walls, statues in his bedroom, to door handles, they were everywhere. He even had swans heads as faucets with water coming from their mouths.

I'm not sure if he was nuts but the rumours of him being gay are possibly true as he had impeccable taste and style and possibly a touch of OCD!