THERE'S a fine line between eccentric and mad.
And if money is no object, self-indulgence can drive you insane.
At least that's the impression you could take away from a visit to "Mad" King Ludwig II's famous addresses.
Ludwig started building three palaces and castles during his reign (1869-86) but had plans drawn up for many more.
The authorities actually were plotting to have him certified insane because they didn't think he was a very good ruler. Perhaps they thought he might bankrupt Bavaria by squandering vast amounts of money on his architectural fantasies.
But at age 40, he drowned - along with the psychiatrist employed to make the insanity analysis - in mysterious circumstances at Lake Starnberg near Munich before he could be deposed officially. The jury is still out on whether it was murder.
Once you see the over-the-top opulence of the decor, artworks and fittings - the finest of everything from around the world, his obsession with the Middle Ages, swans and Richard Wagner's operas, and learn that he rarely entertained guests so all this excess was for him and him alone, you would probably call Ludwig mad, too.
The 1.5 million visitors to Neuschwanstein Castle annually, however, come to see his madness in all its glory.
With the help of Munich's Oberbayern Royal Castles Tour, we were visiting the "fairytale castle" that inspired Walt Disney on possibly the worst day of the year.
Even in snow and ice, Neuschwanstein Castle has a magical appearance. But not so much in pouring rain, grey skies and clouds that hang in the surrounding pine forests and move across to blanket the entire complex or at least its towers and spires.
The 19th-century Romanesque-style palace above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in south-west Bavaria became less fairytale castle, more eerie medieval fortress.
As I stood with dozens of others with umbrellas on the Mariebrucke suspension bridge - generally one of the pick spots for photos - we could see nothing in front of us and only a gushing waterfall below.
But just as everyone else retreated to the road leading to the castle grounds, the cloud lifted slightly, then a little more and a little more to reveal the famous outline that led to Disneyland's own Sleeping Beauty's Castle after Walt Disney's own visit. Disneyland Paris now also has a King Ludwig's Castle offering Bavarian delights.
Construction of Neuschwanstein began in 1869 and continued until 1886 when his family - presumably to pay the bills - opened it unfinished as a tourist attraction six weeks after Ludwig's demise (he's buried in Munich's St Michael's Church).
So the castle remains virtually unchanged from that time.
The Bystantine-style throne room is without a throne as a result, but it does have Italian marble steps leading to the place where a throne would sit, as well as an impressive one-tonne crown-shaped brass chandelier that could be lowered (built and installed in 1904 to Ludwig's original drawings), nearly two million stone mosaic tiles laid in a circular pattern on the floor, and the 12 apostles either side of the steps with an impressive mural of Christ and the Holy Grail behind the throne.
Ludwig also was a visionary and loved to have the latest technology.
He had his own modern toilet that flushed once he got up from the seat, a telephone (not sure who he could call, though, apart from servants in another area of the castle) and electricity in some rooms.
His bedroom - the only gothic room in the castle - is full of magnificent timber carvings that in total took a team of craftsmen four years to complete, including the spires of multiple churches of Germany carved over the top of the bed.
The colourful Singer's Hall, modelled on another in Germany's Wartburg Castle, never put on a show but has a painted backdrop to the stage of the Singer’s Contest featured in a Wagner opera as well as the saga of Parsifal and the Holy Grail by a Munich theatre painter that our guide said was credited with drawing up the plans for all three of Ludwig's castles (Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee and Neuschwanstein).
Our first palace stop on the coach tour was the baroque and rococo-styled Linderhof Schloss - the only one of the three he saw completed and his favourite.
The relatively small palace is more like a royal villa on the outside but boasts exquisitely decadent interiors and is surrounded by romanesque-style landscaped gardens.
Ludwig had wanted to build a replica of the Palace of Versailles and its gardens in France but the valley was too small.
On the official tour inside, visitors are taken from one room into another, each leaving them more gobsmacked than the previous one.
The highlights for me were the king's bedroom and the Room of Mirrors.
The bedroom is very large, based on that of the 17th century French kings who would accept guests in their bedrooms in the mornings and before retiring (although King Ludwig II never did).
At 190cm tall, he also had a huge bed decorated in blue velvet.
A 1/2 tonne chandelier of bohemian crystal also can be found here, a well as the "Magic Table" for dining, on a pulley system through the floor that took five minutes to be lowered to servants downstairs and another five minutes to go back up with food to Ludwig.
From his bed, he could see through his window to the Neptune Fountain and cascade with music gazebo at the top of the hill.
But the king apparently slept during the day and had his lunch about 1am - a routine his servants also had to get used to - so he spent most of his time in the palace in the Room of Mirrors.
The mirrors create an optical illusion, making the room look much bigger. The effect would have been quite remarkable at night under candlelight as the room is dripping in gold.
An avid collector, the king had 94 porcelain vases out of 150 in palace in this room but the most precious item is the pure Indian ivory wall chandelier. I try not to think of how many elephants died in its creation.
Paintings on the ceilings (some creating a 3D effect with arms and legs coming out from the artwork), gold down walls and on ceilings and mirrors, porcelain and timber carvings everywhere - the extreme decadence is, well, maddening...
Lesson of the day: Things I am still getting used to:
* Bans on taking photos of interiors of castles when they are readily available on the internet
* Looking to the left before looking to the right in crossing any street
* Waiting to be served at a table, and not approaching the bar
* Waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the bill after eating or drinking, and not approaching the counter
* Keeping to the right when walking up or down stairs, escalators and alleyways
* Cheese, meats, pate and vegetables at the breakfast buffet.
* How cold the tap water is.
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