That morning, we got ourselves up early and made it to the meeting point for our bus trip. We had bought tickets for a day trip to see the Linderhof and Neuschwanstein Castles. The meeting point was near the main train station Hauptbahnhof and the tour was in English. We got on the bus, chose our seats, and settled in for the ride to Linderhof. The website is http://www.stadtrundfahrten-muenchen.de/ . After a little while, we arrived at the Linderhof estate. Beautiful gardens, fountains, forests, and mountain peaks were the setting and the house was amazing. Apparently it was modelled after Versailles.
Mad King Ludwig II, who wasn't really mad at all, liked to live alone and pretend that he lived in another time. So he had these castles/houses made to his liking so that he could make the older times a reality. Although no pictures could be taken inside, we guarantee you that the inside of the house was gorgeous. Paintings, gold-leaf, rich fabrics....straight out of a fairy tale. Careful for the swans, though! They hiss and bite!
Next stop? Oberammagau, where we had a short souvenir shopping break. Oberammagau is famous for it's Passion of the Christ play that the town puts on every 10 years. They start playing in May and stop playing in October....but even with so many shows, it's still hard to get tickets. Apparently they even choose one person to bring the cross to the top of one of the mountain peaks that surround Oberammagau. It's a big honour to be chosen to do this. Can you see the cross on top of the mountain?
After we bought a few Christmas ornaments of people in traditional Bavarian get-up, we hopped back on the bus to get to Neuschwanstein. When we got to Nauschwanstein, we stopped for lunch and then made the 30 minute trek up into the hills. It was an easy hike as the road was paved enough for people to get their horse and carriage ride, if they wanted to pay for it. We opted for the walk. The scenery was amazing!!!
Neuschwanstein is the basis of Disney's Cinderella castle...and once we hiked up there, we could see why!
No comments:
Post a Comment