Linderhof and Oberammergau - with SNOW!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

It was raining hard in the morning as we were getting ready, but we were rewarded when we got to see the mountains -- new snow! Not a lot, but it looked so beautiful on all the upper mountains today. I don't know why, but these snowy scenes excited me very much! I think it was just the thought of being in the Alps, and then having this picturesque bonus.

We thought we'd leave early and not stop anywhere before arriving at King Ludwig's 2nd castle Linderhof, in an effort to beat the tour buses. It wasn't far at all (north past Garmisch a little ways), but when we arrived at 10:15, we still needed to wait over an hour for the next English tour. As it turned out, we were glad to have the time to walk around the vast grounds and look at other lavish "toys" of Ludwig's. It luckily had stopped raining.

This was called his "kiosk", or "Moroccan kiosk". Typical of Ludwig, it was extremely lavish and ornate on the inside:

This photo doesn't show the half of it (or less), but it does show Janet was cold!

We also visited the Moorish Kiosk, the chapel, and a little pond with swans. Here are two pictures:

Eventually it was time for our tour. This is Linderhof, and Ludwig called it his Hunting Lodge. As his castles went, it is a bit smaller, but it was furnished unbelievably.

 If you look out from the front of the "lodge", here's what you see. It too was incredible, but by now, we were half expecting this from Mad Ludwig.

That golden statue had a fountain that shot a tower of water way high into the sky for a couple of minutes at each hour.

Our tour was fun. Much of the furnishing theme was France's King Louis XIV, the Sun King. Ludwig had an obsession with him and Versailles. I kept wondering why Ludwig wouldn't have just been satisfied with this castle since it was completed and was so spectacular, and ditch any plans for his others? Course, I suppose I'm not crazy the way he was.

Ludwig was a loner. His dining table was on a mechanism that lowered it down to the kitchen below so that he would not have to be bothered by anyone coming to set his table and serve him. After the kitchen had laid everything out, it would be reeled back up to his dining room and he could eat in complete privacy. Everything everywhere seemed like it was gold and marble and ivory.

This cascading water and Neptune Fountain out the rear window was fashioned after Versailles. There were fancy side gardens as well, and here's one side.

In other words, in all directions surrounding the schloss were fountains and manicured gardens. After our tour we walked up the hill behind to his Venus Grotto. He created a vast multi-room cave setting, and the entire fantasy was based on Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser. It had stalactites, paintings, colored lights, and even a golden throne boat.

His servants would row him around on the fake little pond, while a special machine made fake little waves. It seemed Ludwig was always dreaming of romance and grandeur.

Eventually it was time to drive to our next featured stop, the Ettal Benedictine Abbey. Ettal was only a few miles back through the valley with snow peaks on both sides. First stop was a Gasthaus for lunch. We were trying to decipher the menu when the gentleman at the next table said we could get English menus. He told us how when he was 9 yrs old, his godfather got him drunk on Ettal Liquor, a sweet booze we saw being sold everywhere. He was interesting, taking his two guests on guided tours of the area.

After lunch we entered the grounds of this 14th century abbey.

The first thing you'll notice is that it was cold outside! The abbey's story is that the original Ludwig, the Holy Roman Emperor, was returning to Bavaria after a pilgrimage to Rome where he had bought a Virgin Mary statuette. At this spot, his horse genuflected to the statue, inspiring him to build this monastery with its unique 12-sided church.

 Here's one view from inside. As usual, everything was unbelievably ornate and rich. But its specialty is right at the top of the archway leading to the alter room on the right. See the little gold piece curling under the top of the arch? Just above that is the original 13th century statuette of the Virgin with Child, shown below in a close-up:

Where, you ask? Remember, it was just a little tiny statue. So, near the bottom of the photo, surrounded by golden fish, is a small painting of the horse genuflecting to...the statuette! Just so that it's not TOO anti-climatic, here's a photo I found of the actual statuette:

The abbey refers to this as the "miraculous statue". Apparently it has inspired many pilgrimages.

Our next stop was Oberammergau, just a short drive north, past Unterammergau! This village is, of course, home of the world-famous Passion Play. After viewing the auditorium, we visited two museums related to the play, which were fascinating. In one we got to watch a documentary and learned lots about how it's all prepared and accomplished.

Here is the auditorium, which holds 4700 people. Over their 5-month run every 10 yrs, they get nearly 600,000 attendees.

It's fairly well known that all the actors, musicians, and stage hands -- all 2400 of them -- are from Oberammergau. The play takes all day to perform. It began in 1633 when the town vowed to perform a Passion Play every 10 yrs if only they would be spared the plague. They were, so viola! Their first play was a year later, and the rest is history. We learned that the directors and orchestra conductors make changes each decade to keep the play "fresh".

The village is another Bavarian beauty, with fountains in the squares, flowers in the window boxes, Lüftlmalerei painted on buildings, and general charm.

We also did some shopping at a vast Christmas store (Käthe Wohlfahrt), and awed at the carved wooden manger sets, the pyramids both large and small, and the millions of ornaments.

On the way home, we stopped at an Aldi store and bought several items, the most amazing of which was a six-pack of fine German pils (0.5 l each) for only 1.69 €. (My original six-pack had cost 6.25 €.) I raved about this for the rest of our trip! It was also nice that they were in capped plastic bottles, so we didn't need to drink a whole bottle if we didn't want to, like wine. We also bought Glüwein,  OJ, red cabbage, bratwurst, potato salad, yogurt, and two boxes of Knödl to make when we get home to Ohio. The entire bill was only 9.81 € (about $13). 

For dinner we had our goulash soup, potato salad, and beer. Yum! I spent hours that evening planning alternative itineraries for our trip, once we decided against going into Italy during the second week. That was prompted by our decision not to try to make a day trip out of Liechtenstein and Appenzell the next day as originally planned. It would be too far for one day. Therefore, we would skip Italy (other than a short drop in from Innsbruck), and visit Liechtenstein and Appenzell after we moved west across Austria, following Salzburg.