The fairytale castles of Bavaria are some of the best visited and best-known sights of Germany, and a daytrip from Munich to see one of them and learn more about the king who had them built is certainly worthwhile. King Ludwig II (1845-86) was the Princess Diana of 19th century Bavaria; he lived a mysterious life and died young, tragically and misunderstood. He loved beauty in all its forms, especially, nature, art and music. Ludwig, a pacifist, was forced to declare war on Prussia and soon after became a recluse in his dream world and used the royal fortune to build one castle after another and indulged his favourite composer, Wagner, with a huge allowance, until he was declared insane by his own family and ministers. He was taken away in a straitjacket in the middle of the night from his greatest achievement, Neuschwanstein castle, and locked up in Berg castle on Lake Starnberg. Soon after, he was found dead, supposedly drowned in knee-deep water together with his doctor. Any Bavarian will tell you that Ludwig was obviously murdered, but it still remains unproven. Ironically, the money that Ludwig had supposedly wasted on his castles has been returned thousandfold to Bavaria through the tourist industry surrounding his them now. Neuschwanstein is officially the most photographed castle in the world, and was the inspiration for the Disneyland castle.