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Published: September 21st 2016
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Linderhof
Outdoor fountain Yesterday was devoted to touring the castles of Ludwig II and it was awesome. Little background on this King – he was very much a loner growing up because he was raised in a castle in a small town with very little exposure to other children other than his mentally ill brother. He loved to read, he loved the arts and music he was much more focused on his education that the politics of the country. At age 18, his father died suddenly and he was thrown into the role of King of Bavaria, which was something he was very much not prepared for and also something he very much didn’t want. The various tour guides that we had throughout the trip referred to him as “a sensitive man,” a pacifist who hated war and overall, someone ill-fitted for the thrown. He also was rumored to be in love with Richard Wagner, a German composer at the time and it was apparently so well known that the court forced him to exile the musician years later. It seemed the Ludwig II had a big of a tough life emotionally which is part of the reason he was a bit of a
Neuschwanstein
View from the bridge recluse, which leads into my explanation of his first palace.
The first palace we saw was Schloss Linderhof or the Linderhof Castle. It was the smallest castle I’ve ever seen, but still incredibly ornate. He built the castle with the sole purpose of being able to be alone. The castle took up only one floor (plus a grand entry way on the floor below with the other lower rooms were servants rooms and a kitchen) and had no guest area or entertaining space. The castled basically had a bedroom, an entrance room, a study, a library and some sitting rooms – very small. What the palace lacked in size, however, it made up in grandeur. He modeled the palace after the Louis XIV style (think Versailles) and the rooms were insanely ornate with gold everywhere. We unfortunately were unable to take pictures inside the palace but take my word for it – incredibly grand. After the quick tour through the castle, we were able to explore the grounds a bit which included beautiful gardens, a very grand fountain and a grotto that was like a huge cave with a water area surrounded by frescos.
After leaving Linderhof, we
Neuschwanstein
Robbie, Caroline, Drew, Jess all at the castle! made a quick stop in a little town along the way to the next castle to see a small Bavarian town and do some shopping and then we went on our way to his next castle – Neuschwanstein. This castle is one that many have heard about as it is the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland. It’s absolutely stunning. As a quick aside, before I delve into this castle - one thing that I feel the need to mention that I have no yet so far is that these two castles are located in the Bavarian Alps which made for absolutely stunning scenery throughout our drive. We passed so many beautiful little Bavarian towns with the beautiful backdrop of lush green mountains with fog interspersed between them. Just lovely. Anyway, we arrived in the town, got a quick bite to eat and then took a bus up to this spot where you can stand on a bridge and get a beautiful view of the castle. It was truly stunning. The bridge was a little insane as it had to be hundreds of feet above a waterfall and was slightly intimidating as dozens of people piled onto the
The Bridge
View from Neuschwanstein of the bridge where we stood bridge to get pictures, but differently worth it for the picturesque shot. After getting the pictures, we headed to the castle to do our tour inside.
This castle was completely different from Linderhof in every possible way. First of all, from the exterior, it was absolutely enormous and incredibly grand – quite the opposite of Linderhof. He also decided that he wanted to build this castle in the more medieval Romanesque style – completely different from the French Rococo style of Linderhof. (Apparently he had plans to build almost a dozen castles and wanted them all to reflect different cultures and eras of architecture.) The castle was also never completed as Ludwig II died suddenly at the young age of 40. Though construction lasted 17 years, only a third of the castle was completed.
The inside of the castle truly had that medieval feel. Dark wood everywhere, much simpler architecture, frescoes on every wall of both biblical scenes and Greek mythology – still very beautiful, but very different from the first palace we had seen. It was amazing to think that these two very different buildings were designed by the same person. The tour itself was pretty short as there was only a third of the castle to see, but highlights include a throne room that looked like a medieval church, his bedroom that had an ornately carved wooden bed that was rumored to have taken three years to make and a large “concert hall” dedicated to the man he loved, Richard Wagner. Once the tour was over, we headed back down the hill to the small town and headed back to Munich.
As it had been a very long day, we got a quick dinner at another beer hall – Augustiner – which is one of the big breweries of Germany. For someone who doesn’t love beer, their Weissbier (wheat beer) was really good! After dinner, we walked around a bit and headed back to the hotel. It was definitely an awesome day and a visit to these palaces is definitely something I would try to squeeze into any German vacation.
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Susan Abrams
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Ludwig II Castles
So interesting the two different styles. I hope you got some pictures of the big one and maybe post cads of the smaller one. Love you. All my friends say they are enjoying the Blog. They love how descriptive you are.