June 17, Part 2 - ABC

Our tour guide says that on some of his tours the tour members, as he calls them, refer to it as an ABC tour: Another Beautiful Church, Another Bloody Castle. This afternoon, we went to see Another Beautiful Castle.

After lunch we drove to Oberammergau and dropped off those who were not going on our optional excursion to Linderhof Castle.  

The rest of us continued to this second of the three castles planned by Ludwig II.  The third was a very large one based on Versailles (although nowhere as big as the real thing) called Herrenchiemsee.  Ludwig very much admired Louis XIV , the Sun King.  Linderhof is a very small castle and is more like a palace.  It has a much more livable scale, and in fact that's where Ludwig spent the most time.  And this castle is the only one that was completed.  In decor it is patterned after Versailles, in a very Roccoco style.  Unlike Neuschwanstein, the rooms are light, gilded and bright.  Once again, interior photos were not allowed.  In the foyer is a large, gold statue of Louis XIV.  Many rooms have walls and sometimes ceilings that are painted.  Of particular note is the dining room, a small room because Ludwig preferred to eat alone.  And to ensure that, the table lowered down into the kitchen to be filled with food, and then was raised back up into the dining room.  You could see the mechanism when peering through the kitchen windows from the outside--the ground floor rooms are not open to the public.  The living room is a small replica of the Versaille's Hall of Mirrors.  The mirrors are positioned to make the room look much larger, with mirrors reflecting mirrors, giving the appearance that you are looking into infinity.

The palace is surrounded by lovely gardens with a large pool and fountain in the front.  

Every 30 minutes the fountain is turned on and it rises to a height of 22 meters using only natural water pressure.  

But most interesting is the grotto that Ludwig had built part way up the (steep!) hill behind the palace.  It is a constructed cave where he put a private theater so he could enjoy performances of Wagner's operas in seclusion.  He did not like to go to public performances because he was distracted so much by the audience watching him that he could not enjoy the show.  The first electricity in Bavaria was generated to provided lighting for the theater in the cave.  It was nice and cool inside, with a waterfall that could be turned on at will.  

A very relaxing space.  And a welcome respite for us because the weather has been unseasonably warm the last few days with temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s and because the hike up to the cave was pretty arduous, but it was well worth the effort.  On our way back to the palace we stopped to peer into a Chinese tea house--very elegant!

More gardens:

The hillside behind the castle, with constructed waterfall, going up toward the grotto:

The bus then returned to Oberammergau, where we had 30 minutes to look around the town.  We parked next to the theater used for the decadal Passion Play, which has an interesting opening in the upper wall to make the sky a part of the scenery. 

As we walked down the street toward the town, we could hear the ones who had remained behind sitting in a park singing tags.  The town itself is definitely tourist-oriented--so many shops, so little time!