Ludwig's third castle

Thursday September 19, 2013

This is Schloss Herrenchiemsee, another of the mad king's fantasy castles. Today's trip was farther than usual, as this destination was about 90 miles away. We decided to take the "scenic route" to get there, and then the autobahn back. It turned out that our scenic route was one of the best parts of the day.

Our route to Bavaria's largest lake, Chiemsee, was the German Alpine Road (Deutsche Alpenstrasse). Back in the 30s, Hitler decided to build this scenic, winding road through the Alps to help show off German engineering and to celebrate the use of the German cars such as BMW and Mercedes. It stretches 300 miles from one end of Bavaria, at Lindau on Lake Constance on the west, to Berchtesgaden at the far southeastern border. We picked it up just north of Mittenwald, although at first we weren't sure we were on the correct road since it was so small and "backwoods". But soon we came to a toll booth and I asked the man if this was the Deutsche Alpenstrasse and he said yes, and please hand over the toll of 4.5 €! For the next 15 miles, we were on a tiny unmarked forestry road with only about four cars ever passing by us. The best part was, we got to see about 200 waterfalls off to our left (north) as we rambled along the Isar River.

One of the first gems we came to was this covered bridge, and just to its left was a rushing waterfall. The waterfalls never stopped appearing along this entire route to the long Sylvenstein Lake (created in 1959 when they built the dam we drove over). Once across the lake it became a regular road, and soon branched south into Austria and then back into Germany and north over the Achenpass (3,087 ft).  It continued to be an incredibly scenic road, although many low clouds prevented us from seeing the full splendor of the Alps we were in.

Eventually we reached Lake Tegernsee, which was our first populated area for the day. We crawled through traffic along the lake until I decided to divert east, surprisingly right where the sign indicated it was still the Alpenstrasse. When we reached Hauchan to turn north, we stopped at a last-chance, homespun bakery before leaving town because we were getting desperate to find a WC. It turned out to be a cute stop. The woman spoke little English, but was very nice and understood what we needed. She led Janet off through their kitchen and upstairs into their laundry room. When she was done, she at first could not figure out how to flush. Once she arrived back in the bakery showroom, I asked about the men's room and the woman led me past some friends who were eating, and into a wash area. We were getting special treatment in their personal areas! Before we left, we bought a pastry since they'd been staring me in the face looking so good, and were inexpensive.

We departed the Alpenstrasse to head north to the autobahn to complete the final 10 miles to the lake where Ludwig's castle was. At one point before we got to the autobahn, I mistakenly went the wrong way. When I pulled over at a street to turn around, a bus made a left turn right toward me and had to come to a complete stop waiting for me to move out of his way. I used some swear words as I tried to put the car into reverse, but when I'd pull out the clutch to move backward, it kept going forward. In other words, I couldn't get the shifter into reverse in my haste. Finally I did, but I'm sure that bus driver was wondering what the heck was wrong with me.

After our autobahn segment, we drove a ways through the countryside to Prien a Chiemsee, a city on Lake Chiemsee, which has an Alpine backdrop to the south. We boarded our quaint old boat for the short ride to Herreninsel (Men's Island) which Ludwig purchased to build his castle.

Look at those menacing clouds. You could sit on top or inside, but with weather like that, most everyone was inside.

Once on the island, we bought our tickets and had to walk about 1/2 mile to the schloss. One thing about visiting Ludwig's castles - we got our exercise walking! At least this time it was flat. Janet was a trooper given her sensitive ankle.

Finally we came upon the manicured gardens with the fountains and castle, which was meant to be a replica of Versailles. Ludwig planned to add wings on either side to match Versailles, but he died before those could be built.

There were lots of fountains. At first they were not on, but then they began to spout. I also got this shot of Janet back in the other direction.

She sure looks cold, yes? That water channel behind her was supposed to be lined with statues and much pomp and circumstance, but again, they pulled the plug on the spoiled king.

Many of the rooms inside Schloss Herrenchiemsee were never decorated, so it looked funny to have such sharp contrast to the decorated rooms. Even though it was to be a replica of Versailles, his Hall of Mirrors was a few meters longer than Versailles (one upsmanship?). All the rooms were just unbelievable, as with his other castles. Again, in his dining room was a table that dropped to the kitchen below for setting so he could dine in complete loneliness.

Even though we knew quite a bit about the Mad King by now, we nevertheless toured the museum about his life, which was set up in some of the unfinished castle rooms.

We drove back to the autobahn and this time took it all the way back to Innsbruck. On the way, we stopped in Kufstein to see their medieval castle (Festung Kufstein).

This fortress was an impressive sight. We parked on the street and walked up the hill, only to find they had just closed for the day. A cable car took you up there, unless you wished to walk up that covered switchback stairway. It was built starting in 1205.

We also snapped this photo out the car window as we departed over the Inn River. Interestingly, throughout the town they had a coat of arms with a barrel on it, and we got curious. We asked a local woman, who certainly knew about the barrel on their town logo, but had no idea what it represented. I looked it up on the trusty Internet and it's simply a salt barrel. Remember, this entire area of Austria and Germany is known for its salt, and apparently Kufstein was too.

We hadn't eaten since breakfast other than some snacks, so we were anxious to get back near Seefeld to find a restaurant. We were timing everything so that we could take the computer to the Seefeld library where we would get free WiFi from 7 to 8:30.

On the drive up the steep grade from Innsbruck to Seefeld, we pulled over at a cliffside restaurant which had a vast view of the Inn Valley. We got a nice window table for our schnitzel dinners, and talked to an American family that sat next to us. I thought it was funny that the village name where this restaurant was, was Reith bei Seefeld, which when spoken sounds like "right by Seefeld", which it was!

On into Seefeld, we found the library without hesitation and successfully connected and spent an hour on our e-mails and Facebook. Janet used her tablet and I used the computer. When we departed, we immediately heard live classical music coming from somewhere, and followed to its source.

We found it in their outdoor theater, a local band playing a variety of music, from Michael Jackson and Johan Strauss to Disney and traditional Austrian folk tunes. It was pretty cool getting to join the audience and listen. We eventually drove the few km back to our timeshare to rest and prepare for Friday's trip.