Magic Table

According to travel magazines, Germany's highest peak was Zugspitze, and the nearest town was called Grainau, itself a somewhat famous tourist destination.

However, directly north of Grainau lay a valley called Gras, where stood a royal palace named Linderhof. Though it had been built later than Neuschwanstein Castle, it was the only palace completed while its king was still alive. It too had been built by the Fairy-Tale King, Ludwig II.

There had been many feudal states, and quite a few had fallen because of extravagant construction projects. But the German king had not lost his kingdom through luxury. Even today, the palaces built by Ludwig II remained a source of pride for Germans.

Ludwig II inherited the throne in 1864 at the age of eighteen. He was not only a king, but also young and handsome, which made him immensely popular both within and beyond Bavaria.

Although one of the foremost concerns after his accession was the court's and people's expectation that he produce a royal heir, Ludwig II never married. He had once been engaged to his cousin, Princess Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria, but the wedding date was repeatedly postponed, and Ludwig II eventually called off the engagement. Sophie married Duke Ferdinand Philippe Marie of Alençon—the Archduke Ferdinand whose assassination became the spark for World War I.

In every fairy tale, the prince and princess ended up "happily together," and the story stopped there. Yet whether they were truly happy in the end was something fairy tales could not bear to describe.

France's Mary married Louis XVI, but their story did not end there. The main section of Linderhof Palace bore traces of imitation from the Palace of Versailles, a treasure of Rococo architecture. Italian, French, and British gardens of varying styles surrounded the palace, decorated with fountains,