I departed from Rome on Tuesday night and arrived in Munich early Wednesday morning. From Munich, I took a train southward and into the Bavarian Alps, to a small town called Fussen. A couple kilometers outside of the city, nestled in the mountains, are two castles built by Mad King Ludwig. He wasn’t an “angry” king—he was a king insane. And the extravagance of his castles showed it.

Here is a gate at his Schloss Hohenschwangau.