Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Schloss Linderhof and Oberammagau, Germany

So the day after touring Munich, mother and I took a tour to the castles Linderhof and Neuschwanstein. The first stop on the tour was Linderhof. The drive there was beautiful. lots of amazing landscapes and little towns, with great buildings.
Our tour guide's name was Gunter. He was a very cute old man who seemed extremely frail when taking our tickets. which we learned was a lie. He was running around, hiking and walking way more than a lot of the other people on our tour! He said some things in English kind of funnily but it was cute. He said "dieds" instead of "death." For example, "After the dieds of King Ludwig" instead of "after the death of king ludwig." He said "has been" instead of "were." "They has been dancing" instead of "they were dancing." and "brewery" was pronounced "brev-er-ry"
When we arrived at Linderhof, the area around the "castle" was very rustic. According to our guide, it is completely left alone and natural, which is fantastic.
well except for that path and fence, it's completely natural. haha
When we reached Linderhof, we discovered it is less of a castle and more like a mini palace. An absolutely gorgeous mini-palace, but definitely a mini palace. (I'm wondering if something was lost in the translation like the "Ancient Musical Instruments" museum in vienna...with instruments from the 1700's on...) We also learned that in Germany everything is on a very strict schedule. You get your entrance tickets for a certain time and enter everything at that exact time. They have this big clock that announces when you can enter. It's very efficient, but kind of funny.
(notice the guys head peaking out from behind he bushes...)
The Gardens around the palace are absolutely beautiful too!
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which I learned after I took this picture.
However, the inside of the palace was amazing. Each room was a different color and extremely ornately decorated. Just ONE of the chandeliers weighed half a ton! Which I learned as I was standing directly beneath it. A lot of the chandeliers, vases and furniture was made out of mycin (?) which was beautiful. One of the chandeliers was made out of Indian Ivory and the rest were crystal. It was very cool. I bought a book of the place since I couldn't take pictures.
After we left Linderhof, we headed to a small town called Oberammergau (which sounds like "Obama-gau" when being said.) The drive was very beautiful again.
Oberammergau is known for it's passion play that is put on every ten years and for the paintings on the buildings that are hundreds of years old but have lasted for a very long time (obviously). The Passion play only allows people who are residents of Oberammergau to participate and you have to have been a resident for 10 years or something (or have been born there if you are a child.) The paintings on the buildings are very cool, so I of course took bajillions of pictures.
Mother and I just wandered the town for a bit. we bought some ice cream. The woman scooping my Tiramasu ice cream cone dropped my scoop on the counter than put it on the cone and gave it to me. I am going to get salmonella but it was sooo good.
After wandering the town, we drove to Neuschwanstein Castle! I will be writing about this castle in the next blog because this one is getting a bit long.
The drive there was beautiful too!

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