Day 4 – Bavarian Castles

Us, in front of the gardens at Linderhof

The rain from yesterday has passed by but left us with an overcast sky and cool temperatures, 41 degrees as we left on our tour. Fortunately we brought warm clothes for the occasion.

Today we took what is called the “Royal Castle” tour which took us to southern Bavaria near the Austrian border. We boarded our bus a little after 8 am and didn’t get back until about 6:30 pm, which seems long but the day went pretty quickly as we made friends with a couple from L.A. and we toured together. We met when we each jumped into the front seats of the second level of the bus to get the best view for the tour.

Interior view of the King's Bedroom

Our first stop on the tour was Linderhof Palace, which along with Neuschwanstein Castle, was built by King Ludwig II in the 1860’s. Ludwig is often called “Mad” King Ludwig for his extravagant spending on castles which essentially bankrupted him. At that time, the king was no longer an absolute monarch in Bavaria and his ministers had him declared incompetent; he drowned a few days later under very mysterious circumstances. Linderhof is built in the style of Versailles in France and has marvelous guild work and mirrors. No interior pictures are allowed so I borrowed one.

Site of the Passion Play

Our second stop was at Oberammergau, the site of the famous German Passion play which is performed by the townspeople every 10 years. The play was first performed in 1634 after the town was spared by the plague. There are 2000 people involved in the play and each one must have been a resident of the town for 20 years. Children must be exempt from the 20-year rule as there are many of them involved as actors as well. Bill was here for the play in 1990, but since then they have added a retractable roof to keep the audience dry in bad weather.

Neuschwanstein Castle

The final stop and highlight of the day was a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the most visited castle in the world and supposedly was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. A visit required a grueling uphill hike of more than a mile and 200 more steps within the castle, but it was well worth it. By the time of our visit, the skies had cleared and the view from the castle was stunning. It overlooks a great panorama of lakes and plains and a view of his parent's castle (yellow in the photo).

View from the castle

In the evening, we continued our tour of the various beer halls in Munich by dining at Augustiner Keller. It was a raucous crowd on a Saturday night and we shared a table with a group of young Swiss men, very drunk and very eager to try their high school English on us and talk about the Eagles. They were really very polite. When they left, a large group of Scottish men took their place. They were holding a bachelor party for one of their friends and took him to Munich. We sat next to two lawyers, actually solicitors as they explained, and they couldn’t have been any nicer. When Jeanne couldn’t finish her meal, one of the guys asked if he could finish it because he didn’t really like German food. He said it was quite lovely – essentially pork medallions and German-style macaroni & cheese. I, of course, had a huge plate of various meats with sauerkraut and a potato dumpling. The food and beer were excellent once again.