Sailing on the Chiemsee

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Thursday, May 27th:
Good morning!! Well I got a treat this morning…instead of having to go and find the ‘magic button’, my cousin, Maxi, who is an aspiring chef, brought me a cappuccino that had a smiling face “painted” on it!! What a nice surprise and treat!! He showed me how to do it, and I would have NEVER figured that one out on my own!!  Our daily breakfasts consisted of rolls and bread, picked up fresh from the bakery just that morning…omgeee…heaven!! We had platters of cheese and cold cuts to choose from, and about 5 different homemade jellies and marmalade, and of course, Nutella!! Some mornings we had soft boiled eggs too. I can’t believe the amount of bread we ate daily!! 
Anyway, we woke up to the clouds covering the Alps, and a little bit of drizzle. It felt nice to have cool weather and to smell the fresh mountain air!! On the schedule today, was a trip to where my mom and dad honeymooned after they got married. The Chiemsee is a large lake in Bavaria that has several islands on it. The largest island, Herrenchiemsee Insel (or Men’s Island), houses the palace that King Ludwig II built. King Ludwig II wanted to reproduce the Palace of Versailles (France), and he intended to build it even bigger. We took a large ferry over, and the ride took about a half hour. When we docked, there was a line waiting to get on our boat, and since it was still drizzling a little bit, everyone had an umbrella...I took a really cool picture of them because all of the umbrellas were so colorful! Once docked, we bought some large pretzels to snack on, and found that there were two ways to get to the palace...one was to walk a mile-long trail, and the other was to ride in a covered hay wagon. Since we were so used to walking, we chose to walk the route. It was a neat trail that took you through the forest...which was not too dense, so it was light, and came out to the clearing where the palace gardens started. Since it had been so cold and rainy in the previous month, the flowers in the palace gardens were not planted yet. But you could see the beauty in the grounds and the meticulous care that they took on the manicured lawns. There were several ornate fountains, and statues. As a matter of fact, there were a pair of statues depicting a lion attacking a wolf, and my mom has a picture at home of when she sat on the statue when she was four years old...so I took a picture of Kenya sitting up there too! What cool memories!! The palace did look just like Versailles, and we bought tickets for the 1:00 tour. When it came time to go in, we first came to a great foyer with two massive staircases going up each side and there was gold everywhere!!! The celings were all lavishly painted, so I took out my camera and took a picture...that is when I noticed the dratted sign!!! „No pictures, no video“ Grrrr!!! I hate that when that happens! They just wanted to sell all of the pictures on their postcards, I’m sure! Well, I did sneak in a few here and there, because I just couldn’t leave without saving something for my memories!!! I noticed that there was this other fellow that hung around the back of the group, and he was doing the same thing! My mom was a lot more blatant about it...she just was the last one out of the room and was happily snapping away! I hope to get some of her shots! LOL Anyway, the palace was HUGE but King Ludwig II had only finished 14 rooms, and he only stayed there for 10 days...out of his whole life!!! I can’t imagine that sort of frivolous spending! There was one room where there was a portrait painted of King Ludwig II, and his hair was quite long and super curly...Kenya, remarked somewhat loudly, „look Mom...he looks just like me!!“ Oh my goodness, my aunt and my mom just cracked up!!!  We got to see his magical dining room, where the huge dining table was raised and lowered from the basement, where the maids and butlers would set it and clean it....out of the king’s sight of course! At the end of the tour, we got to go down to the basement and see the intricate pulley system that made that possible. Wow! There was also a huge bath that made a pool look small!! The walls and ceilings were all painted with cherubs and clouds in there.
After the tour, we walked back to the ferry dock, and actually got to take the oldest ferry in the lake, it was a ferry with a paddlewheel! By then, it had cleared up, so we sat outside and enjoyed the balmy air. We took that ferry to another island, called Frauen Insel (or Women’s Island). This smaller island housed a huge convent with a beautiful buidling and courtyard and church. When we got off of the boat and were walking down the dock, we saw some people leaning over the railing and looking at soemthing!! There were some birds in the reeds that had new chicks in the nest! We walked around the entire island, and had lunch at a beer garden. I had wienerschnizel and potato salad, Kenya had a wurst and fries (or pomme frites), my cousin had potato pancakes (which I WISH I would have ordered!!!)...my mom had Leberkäse , which today, was cut more like a meatloaf, and my dad, uncle and aunt, had bratwursts and beer....large pilsner glasses of beer!  After we ate, we walked some more and came across, I swear, a grandma and grandpa, a mom and dad, and 13 baby ducklings!!!! One of the 13 was a gold duckling! We called her „the golden child“...Kenya had a piece of pretzel left over from earlier, so she used it to feed the ducks...she got closer and closer, and pretty soon they were eating out of her hand! She was right next to the ducklings, and they were happily eating the crumbs falling from her hand...she got a lot of great pictures from her close angle! I got some great ones too...what a great memory!! When we walked over to near where the gate to the convent’s courtyard was, the Mother Superior nun came out of the gate...I soooo wanted to take a picture, but felt a little too shy to do so. It made me think about the Sound of Music movie.  We took the long way back to the mainland, and I just can’t even describe the beauty of the islands and their inhabitants. Each waterfront home was immaculate and the lawns and flowers were so picturesque...the waterfront homes here are not ostentatious like they are at home...some of them were just small cottages, some of them were quite old and weatherbeaten looking, but they all had the charm and beauty that you would imagine when thinking about Bavaria.

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