Time Travel Photo Journal #17: Liebestod in the Tristan Bedroom

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A series of pictures and factoids for Create's NaJoPoMo Challenge.

Time Travel Photo Journal #17: Liebestod in the Bedroom

The Tristan Bedroom in Neuschwanstein Castle.

The bus drives up to the foot of the mountain. You step out into the bracing winter air, snow crunching under your boots. You look up. Way up. Oh, lord, it's a Disney castle.

Wrong. Apparently, crazy King Ludwig had the same bad taste as an American cartoonist. Go figure. And yet, when I try to explain why I think those cartoons are 'fascist', I get funny looks…

Anyhow, you decide you can't afford the carriage ride, and trudge up the hill zu Fuss. It's worth it: the inside of this pseudo-Romanesque monstrosity is even more bizarre than the outside. There's room upon room of pretentious architectural nonsense going on. And, since it belonged to an honest-to-gosh tinfoil-crowned king, it even has a throne room. What more could you ask for?

No wonder I think this thing belongs on the Moon.

The pièce de résistance is the Tristan bedroom. I refuse to comment on what kind of sexual proclivity it takes to team the idea of 'bedroom' with the idea of 'Tristan'. But Ludwig was a major Wagner fan, so he would have known the term Liebestod. Freud could have made a meal of that family.

If you say 'castle', lots of people think of Neuschwanstein. After all, 60 million people have visited it. Ironic, considering that shy Ludwig built it as a 'retreat'. He needed one, obviously. I don't think he should have been out in public, much.

As I said, it's an impressive edifice, if a bit weird. But I wouldn't like to spend the night in that bedroom. I'd be worried about the dreams. Or worse, the music.

Why couldn't he have liked Beethoven?

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