Castle Neuschwanstein, The Town of Oberammergau, and Linderhof Castle

Castle Neuschwanstein, The Town of Oberammergau, and Linderhof Castle

we arrived in Munich a few days prior to the official tour so we took a day trip to three places outside of Munich there is no way I am even going to attempt to pronounce the names of the castles or the towns the first top was here the castle that gets all the pr and supposedly was the inspiration for one of the Disney castles when you first hit the parking lot the first castle you actually see is up on Hill it was built by King maximilan of Bavaria and was the childhood residence of his son King ludig the guy who built the one that people really come here to see the little town below it and where we currently are is where you start the journey up the mountain you can walk take a cab part of the way or a Hors drawn cart still only part of the way for me the horse ride was almost as good as seeing the Castle itself the shy King had the castle built in order to withdraw from public life but now in the summer around 6,000 visitors streamed through the rooms that were intended for one single person 7 weeks after the death of King ludrick in 1886 the castle was already open to the public I’m sure he would have been thrilled but they needed to pay the bills this in combination with the Alpine climate and the actual movements of the foundations need to be monitored continuously and that ain’t free also light leads to considerable stress on the valuable furniture and textiles and that’s why you cannot take pictures inside the castle the castle was never completed and even though Ludwig tried to pay for the construction out of his own pocket the extravagant costs and the extensive borrowing was threatening the treasuries so they eventually refused to give him any money at all so many of the rooms are actually being built and furnished for the first time you can’t argue about the view it is amazing almost worth the trip just for the view although he is often referred to as the Mad King because his behavior was very odd things like he would leave his castle by climbing out of the window instead of walking out the door he really never got to spend much time here but his design thoughts were ahead of their time besides the engineering techniques used there is an artificial cave system and hidden telephone system this site was actually ruins from two other castles when Ludwick decided to build here eventually the Bavarian government soon deposed him saying he had gone insane and within days Ludwig and his personal doctor were both found dead in mysterious circumstances in the waters of Lake stanberg as I had mentioned you are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle you only get to stand stand in the entryway but in some ways the views are worth it all on their own the side you get to see isn’t the side that would remind you of a Disney Castle you see that more on the right up and down is it worth the trip well unfortunately until you actually go there you have to make that determination yourself [Music] I told you I wouldn’t try to pronounce this of the three places we visited this one was actually my favorite mostly because it’s flat and easy to walk around the town which shall not be named is a small town nestled in the Bavarian Alps with a little over 5,000 inhabitants the quaint Village is best known for its tradition of wood carving its intricated frescoed buildings and the world famous Passion Play production performed every 10 years since 163 before however there have been some adjustments during the centuries due to Wars and more recently Co the reason the town is so passionate about the passion place is that according to local Legend the inhabitants of the village vowed that if God spared them from the effects of the Bubonic plague then sweeping the region they would perform a passion play every 10 years a man traveling back back to the town for Christmas allegedly brought the plague with him I doubt that was intentional but the man supposedly died from the plague and it began spreading throughout the town however after The Vow was made according to tradition not another inhabitant of the Town died from the plague and just for good measure all of the Town members that were still suffering from the plague were said to have recovered the village is also known as the home of a long tradition of wood carving and here in Boston at the seaport District Church there is a wooden statue of Our Lady of Good voyage that came from this little town if you get to the seaport District in Boston the church is right across the bridge on the right side of the street I stopped and had a coffee and pastry while Leslie went to check out the [Music] shops the last place we stopped was the linderhof castle this one I can pronounce this is another castle that ludvig had built out of a previous hunting Lodge he actually got to live here for a while and it was also the only Castle he really got to complete as with his other castles you cannot take pictures inside it’s not a huge place but certainly shows the extravagance of the Bavarian royalty he really was impressed by the French Sun King Louis the 14th and versailes he even had his own version of the Hall of Mirrors the out side almost looks like a miniature version of Versa although it’s called a palace it just seems to really be an expensive house that royalty lived in it’s just a lot smaller than one’s idea of a castle or a palace but that’s just my impression

Three side trips while waiting for the Rick Steve’s Munich to Austria tour in the Spring of 2024.