Neuschwanstein means "New Swan Stone" is located in the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen  in southwest Bavaria, Germany.This castle was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria, who paid for most of it out of his personal fortune rather than dipping into the Bavarian coffers.Ludwig II is known as the fairy-tale king. The inspiration for the castle came to the eccentric king from the theater themes, musical mythology and operas of Richard Wagner,his close friend.
 I wanted to visit the Castle primarily to see what and how a medieval- style chateau called the Neuschwanstein Castle, that was built for no strategic or defense purposes, inspired the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle. Well, it turns out that the dainty turrets, cylindrical towers and the romantic views  surely did inspire Walt Disney  and then forever became a fairy-tale oasis.
  The Castle is a hybrid of shapes of Romanesque with cuboid and semicircular arches,Gothic with slim towers and delicate embellishments, Byzantine art and architecture all mingled in an eclectic fusion for a nineteenth century castle.The white sandstone was sourced from a nearby quarry and the sandstone brick for the portals and the bay windows along with the marble from  places near Salzburg.
  Despite its size the castle does not have space for a royal court, only private lodgings and servant quarters. Ludwig II lived as a recluse in the castle for a total of 172 days only. He was found dead in a nearby lake along with his psychiatrist. He was 40 years old. His death is still a mystery as to if it was a murder, suicide or purely accidental. When Ludwig was stripped of all real power, historians believe he decided to retreat into his fantasy kingdom in the Alps, living in alternate reality in which he could play his operatic daydream of christian knights and magical swans. He would sleep during the day and wander the castle at night.
  He had a perfect location picked out as the castle sits near his childhood castle of Hohenschwangau. It has a 360 degree views of pristine alpine scenery of lakes, lush valleys and towering peaks. Had the castle been completed it would have had 200 rooms, with all technological comforts such as electricity, sewage system, central heating and electric buzzers to summon servants. However, only few rooms are in service - The Throne room, Ludwig's Suite, The Singer's Hall and the Grotto. The castle has been featured in movies such as The Great Escape ( 1963) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ( 1968).
  To get to the castle we took an early morning train at 5.45 am from Munchen HBH ( Munich's Central Station) to Füssen. The early morning journey was a window into the Bavarian countryside.The rolling green meadows, farms, windmills and solar powered barns made up much of the scenery. The herd of cows strolled and grazed in open un-fenced fields. It drew my attention to the cow bells around their necks. Beautifully handcrafted with representative alpine figures they are hand carved or cut out of wood or bronze with leather collars. Some have sleigh bells jingling, telling the herdsmen how far the cows have cruised out. It keeps the loitering cows safe from wandering off the cliffs as they search for greener pastures. The noise of the bells also keeps evil spirits at bay, such is the belief. The clanging and chiming of the bells is certainly a key part of living on alpine pastures, keeping the old fashioned farm culture and life alive. So then in that moment I decided to buy a cowbell as a souvenir to represent the memories of this trip,
 On arriving at Füssen we took Bus 78 that drops you off just downhill at the ticket center by the castles. From here you can go to the two other neighboring castles or take a bus to Neushwanstein castle. A small ride and you get dropped off at a station to hike the rest of the way to the majestic entrance of the castle. Along the way you can take pictures of the beautiful Bavarian scenery that frames all three castles.
 The entrance ticket is timed. No photography is allowed of the interiors. It takes about 45 minutes to complete the guided tour.
 King Ludwig built a beautiful castle using his vivid imagination. No wonder 1.5 million visitors flock in every year to check it out.

Of all the scientists, I find Leonardo Da Vinci to be the most intriguing.He was an amazing genius and  wore numerous hats- was an artist, engineer, architect, anatomist, cartographer, geologist, writer, mathematician, poet, inventor, clothes designer among other things. A legend even in his own times, he unified the arts with the sciences. He strived to reach the core of his every pursuit and realize all his abilities and potentials.So amazing were his talents that he was accused of witch craft and his contemporaries saw him as a wizard .

Leonardo's futuristic inventions such as contact lenses and a writing instrument that resembles a modern day fountain pen are still with us in our everyday lives. He was indeed the quintessential Renaissance man, the one who represents the renascence, rebirth, of the arts, of science and of reason over superstitions. I got an opportunity to see his amazing works and discoveries at the Milan Science Museum.

When drawing the birds, he thought about the trajectories and the flight of the bird. He was a meticulous observer of nature. According to him the human body is a perfect machine, with a perfect architecture. When he drew a human body he showed "tendon or muscle is the cause of each movement" in his drawing. Leonardo's interest in proportions was sparked by writings of Vitruvius which provide a systematic examination of Roman engineering and architectural methods that were used in city planning,  temple architecture , in pneumatics, waterworks and drainage.

But it is the iconic drawing of the "Vitruvian Man" that tells about the proportions of the human body. In his study of living models and corpses he applied the core of his knowledge and created illustrations of human anatomy that are uncannily accurate, except for the female reproductive system . Anatomists during Leonardo's time often dissected unclaimed bodies, such as of vagrants or drunks who were more likely to be males.

Leonardo was the first to draw the human spine with the correct curves. He was also a first to draw a fetus in-utero.Today anatomy revolves and engages new imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that allows surgeons to view every detail for diagnosis and for operating.

Micro-anatomy, the study of anatomy at microscopic level is an area that was not yet there for Leonardo during his time. He however anticipated advances that would come only in the last several decade. His baby-in-utero drawing foresee the modern ultrasound techniques. His drawings of the anatomy of the shoulder look like modern 3D visualization.

He believed in his belief system and his own experiences. He saw and recorded what he perceived for the rest of the humanity hundreds of years ahead of his time. A wandering scientist with a pen ( that he designed ) with which he wrote everything in reverse, even his signature, that drew the future. He was an enigma . My big salute to this master genius.

Some fun facts about Da Vinci

- He was an ambidextrous,  paranoid dyslexic.  He could draw forward with one hand while writing backwards with the other producing a mirror image script that was laterally inverted. Others found it extremely difficult to read, which was exactly the point.

- Researchers at The University of Amsterdam and the University of Illinois used the face- recognition software to determine that Mona Lisa is 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry.

- Leonardo was the first to prove why the sky is blue. (It's because of the way air scatters light).

- Bill Gates bought  Leonardo's Codex Leicester in 1995 for $ 30 million. This manuscript,  the only one not held in Europe, includes da Vinci's studies on hydraulics and the movement of water. Few pages out of it were used as screen savers on Windows 95.

- Leonardo de Caprio's name is Leonardo because his mother was standing in front of a Leonardo Da Vinci's potrait when he first kicked.

- In one of his drawings the uterus is wrong. In his drawing the uterus is as we would see in animals such as cows. Since it was difficult to procure female corpses,  Leonardo used the knowledge that he had gained from dissecting animals to help him understand the human body.