Tuesday June 4th

So this morning we opened up the curtains and saw....mountains!  And the sun was out!  I don't think we have ever got out of bed and dressed so fast...!  After breakfast we checked out and went on our way.  Today we weren't travelling that far and had two items on our itinerary, neither of which were affected by the flooding because their were both on a hill and we were almost in the mountains anyway.  We checked out easily, but had to pay in cash apparently because the credit card machine wasn't working due to all the local flooding.  No problem, as we came prepared!

We arrived at Linderhoff pretty much as it opened at 9am, and made our way in.  We bought tickets and made our way to the Schloss, awaiting the guided tour around it.  The grounds were large but the house itself  was quite small.  Kind Ludwig II had modelled it on Versailles in France, and I have to say it was more Versailles than Versailles!!  Even though it was small, it looked incredibly sumptuous, lots of woodcarving covered in gold leaf.  Apparently there are only 5 kilos of gold leaf in the house because everything is so thin and brushed on.  Still, it was full of floral fussy decoration, lots of rococo style artistry, ceilings and walls completely covered with things, there was no bare wall to be seen.  It was pretty much....well....ridiculous I guess you could say, it was so over the top with everything.  Large mirrors were used to make the rooms look much much bigger than they actually were, and there were lots of vases which he liked to collect, there were plenty of little plinths for them to be displayed on.  I think our guide said there were about 250 in the house overall.

After our tour of the house, we went along the park path to the Grotto which was pretty epic to say the least.  It was very impressive, although we had to remind ourselves that King Ludwig II used it alone.  He wasn't a socialiser and preferred to be alone....losing grip of reality resulting in him being declared clinically insane.  Although whether he was or not we don't know, it may have been an excuse to remove him from the throne.


We continued round the garden and had a look at the pavilions in the grounds; a Moorish Kiosk and a Moroccan House, all completely decorated inside and very colourful indeed.  After this, we wandered to the shop and bought some post cards.  We're still intrigued by the gift shops being so limited with the merchandise...who buys napkins as a gift?  Who needs yet another porcelain mug?  I may be on the lookout for more quirky gift shops...!

So before we left Linderhoff, I was feeling rather hungry so I went into the shop which sold "snacks".  I came away with a Nusschecken or something like that - basically a cinnamon swirl but with a sweet nut paste instead.  Yum!

Onward we went to Nauschwanstein.  Yes, we could well have cut through Austria to get there, but Mathew wasn't sure about it with regards to the nsurance on the car, so we went the long way around.  It gave us a chance to take in the mountains and approach the castle from a rather dramatic viewpoint!  The ground we were travelling on was so incredibly flat compared to the looming mountains!  Mathew said it was pretty much the same in the Canadian Rockies, but I guess I didn't really notice it as much there because it was much more built up.  Here, it was flat fields of grass with the odd shed here and there, it was much more of a contrast I think.

Finally in Hohenschwangau, we parked and wandered around a little.  A small place but with plenty of eateries and souvenir shops.  We got our tickets and walked up to the Schloss; it was long and steep, but definitely worth it to see the fairy tale style castle which has inspired Disney's.  This one was dedicated to Wagner though, as Ludwig II was a close friend of his.  This castle, although Ludwig II lived in it, he only did so for about 160 days before he died.  He was declared clinically insane and was taken to Berg Palace on Lake Starnberg where his body was found with his Doctor in the lake, the circumstances of his death unknown to this day.  When he died, all building work was stopped and as a result, this castle was never actually finished - just a third of it was.


Schloss Neuschwanstein was also over the top with the decor, but in a very different way. Pretty much all the walls and ceilings were painted, although the majority of it was pretty flat - not a great deal in the way of wood carving with the exception of the bedroom.  The wall and ceiling paintings depicted mythological and legendary stories, and in between bright vivid colours in patterns and swirls, no surface being left blank at all.  Impressive and really quite spacious.  At the end of the tour, we descended a spiral staircase and saw the kitchens which had been completed, and the shop was in part of the castle which was unfinished - and it really was - brick walls, wooden floors, timber beams and no paint.


Outside, we walked around the castle to a view point on a bridge which again was very steep but definitely worth it! On our way back towards the castle I spotted a local artist selling his work so I stopped and bought something from him.  We continued on and down the slope which we had walked up to get to the castle, and stopped off for a rather late lunch.  Mathew got us each a "Pizza Snack" (just a mini pizza) which we had there before continuing down to the car and making our way to the hotel.

The hotel was Gasthauf Rossle, in a small quaint village and this time it appeared that the lady who checked us in did not speak a word of English.  But we seemed to check in just fine and we understood most of what she said.  Yet again, we thought that dinner might be somewhat interesting as we didn't think that the menu would have an English translation.


The restaurant was easy to find, and I had previously taken a photograph of the menus outside and had taken time to translate the majority of the words.  Fortunatly our in depth investigation of the previous nights menu was fairly fresh in my mind with some new words so it didn't take me long to figure out a few things.  However, there were quite a few words which I was not familiar with and could not identify with my German phrase book (the dictionary at the back was only English - German, not the other way around!).  Played it safe with a rump steak in pepper and garlic sauce, whilst Mathew went with the beef goulash.  We both enjoyed our meals and were yet again full without space for dessert, so we paid as left, having spoken everything in German!  Hooray!


The evening was spent chilling out, especially as we had a long drive the following day, heading towards the Black Forest.  Now I will have to find a space in my stomach for some gateaux whilst we're there!!