Germany Day 5 - Castle on a lake

This morning we were visited by the black cat that came to see us yesterday. Christian has declared it a friend and gave it some milk to drink. James suspects that it has a good living going round to all the tourists and begging for treats.

 

Black cat (Christian's pic)

New friend (Christian's pic)

Will has his morning coffee

Christian gave the cat some water (Christian's pic)

Christian's new friend

Our original plans today were to return to Italy to see the Iceman. Thankfully, however, we decided to buy tickets before making the two hour drive and discovered that the museum is sold out for the week. But we'd planned on a two hour drive and we were going to take a two hour drive, come hell or high water. So we set out for Herrenchiemsee, one of Ludwig II's famous and ostentatious palaces. 

 

I had finally slept well the night before but my knee was still very sore. Since the driver's seat is the only seat with any legroom (and it is my left leg not my right that is hurt), I did the driving today. We didn't have a good start because the navigation system sent us this small road that became even smaller, eventually turning into a one lane road. That seemed crazy so we turned around and took a different path, but we'd already gone 45 minutes in this direction so we spent most of our drive on back roads. They were beautiful though. We drove up mountains and past lakes, both stunning in their beauty. It would have been quite pleasant if we weren't worried about getting to the palace on time. 

 

Mountain lake on our drive

Our crazy back road!

The palace is on an island on Lake Chiemsee. To get there we needed to take a boat from Prien, a pretty little lake town. Unfortunately the almost empty parking lot was closed for unknown reasons so it took us a little longer than we'd hoped to make the boat ride. This meant that by the time we made it to the island we were too late for our scheduled tour. Thankfully a very nice woman at the ticket counter exchanged our tickets for a later time, although the only available tour was in German. 

 

James and his mom on the boat

Chiemsee

Jon on the boat

But I am getting ahead of myself. The boat ride over was short but very pleasant. Jon availed himself of the drink selection and barely had time to finish it, with help, before we had to disembark. Chiemsee is very pretty and reminds me a bit of Winnipesaukee back home. There are multiple little islands and lots of little boats out on the water. 

 

Jon enjoys his drink

James enjoys the scenery

It was a beautiful day

Chiemsee

Will and I on the ride

Christian had the quintessential teen experience when dragged to tourist locations 

From the landing it is a 20 minute walk to the palace. Once again the wheelchair saved the day! The walk was mostly flat but it was still nice to have a future Marine to push it along the gravel path. The weather was perfect, just a bit hot in the sun but beautiful in the shade. And the grounds of the island are beautiful. It would only be perfect if you could ride a horse around the many paths. 

 

Butterfly garden

The island

Carriage ride

The walk to the palace

Herrenchiemsee

Christian takes a picture of the view

Herrenchiemsee was built by King Ludwig II in 1878. He was famous for spending lots of money that he didn't have, to build, or start building, fabulously beautiful palaces. Neuschwanstein is one of his and probably the most recognizable. Herrenchiemsee is modeled after Versailles and is the last palace Ludwig attempted. He ran out of money, was deposed, and then "committed suicide". He died before Herrenchiemsee was completed and soon after his death it was opened to the public. There is a small but beautiful garden in front of the palace with three large fountains and many small statues surrounding them. 

 

Our family at the castle

The fountain between the palace and the lake

Flowers in the garden

Will in the garden

One of the side fountains

Christian walking to the palace

Brothers

Vain cherubs

Jon (John Lennon?)

The only way to see the inside of the palace is to take a guided tour, and as I said before we missed the English tour so we had to take the German one. But we did receive some English notes on each of the rooms so we could mostly follow along. Pictures were strictly not allowed, but Christian managed to take some good ones. 

 

Each arch in the entryway had a different face carved into it

Christian in front of the palace

Each room was ornately and gaudily decorated, crammed with so much gold and crystal that it was impossible to take in all the details. At first it felt impressive, but soon it began to feel hollow. Jon said that it was "too materialistic, devoid of any soul or purpose." He said that when we saw the Italian castle it felt inhabitable. That there was a human spirit there, a homely nature to it. But that he felt the spirit of Herrenchiemsee, which had never been lived in, was empty or demonic.  

A clock in one of the rooms. (Christian's pic)

A stateroom. (Christian's pic)

The same stateroom from the other side. (Christian's pic)

Ludwig loved blue, which does indeed go well with gold. (Christian's pic)

For my own part, I started out impressed by the splendor, but by room three that started to change. Ludwig built this palace as a mini Versailles, and so much of the decor was dedicated to the French king that it actually came to feel pathetic. Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but it does not always speak well of the imitator. Or am I being too harsh to Ludwig? The hall of mirrors was certainly beautiful and must have been a truly grand place for a ball. 

 

This is the hall of mirrors and it is quite long. We are at the far end of it. (Christian's pic)

This was set up for a concert that was being held later this evening. (Christian's pic)

Palace selfie. This is my favorite! (Christian's pic)

By the time we were done with the tour we were all starving. We attempted to get food at a cafe near the docks but were turned away. German restaurants are mainly all seat yourself, but they also don't display their closing times. We saw customers seated and being served food, but when we sat the waitress eventually came up and told us it was drinks only. Frustrated and a bit hangry we had nothing to do but wait half an hour for the boat. When it arrived we discovered that the tickets had fallen out of James' pockets at some point but the crewman was very nice and didn't make us pay again.   

Our family

 

"Look at me, Mama!"

Will and Jon

A fountain statue

Piebald tree

Waiting for dinner that would never come

Will tries to make a duck friend

 

The boat back to Prien

Back in Prien we found a likely looking restaurant near the water. All of us were on edge by this point and Jon was feeling very down about his prospects for a good meal. Different countries, or perhaps regions, have different flavors that dominate. In Iceland there was a mineral taste that was in everything. Here the predominate flavor, at least in meats and sauces, is sausage. (That's probably not technically accurate, but it is a very strong flavor.) Jon doesn't like it and as a picky eater myself I completely sympathize. (I do like schnitzel but more than once a month is just too much!) So when the menu promised 100% beef "American" burgers, I and all three boys took the bait. They were actually not bad. They weren't American burgers at all, but it was nice to have beef. Christian wolfed down his and half of mine in a minute, and they were huge! A couple of us had ice cream too before we left town. It wasn't anything to write home about. 

 

Chiemsee (Christian's pic)

Banana split (Christian's pic)

On the drive home we took the highway into Austria and then over to Krun which was much faster and an easy drive. Germany is famous for the autobahn, a place where there are no speed limit restrictions. But so far we've only experienced very small sections with no speed limit and most of the time it is limited to 120 kph (75mph) or less. Tonight most of the empty highway was set at 100kph (60mph). The speed limits are strange here. A 4 lane divided highway will be set at 100kph which is way too slow, and a 2 lane narrow country road with many twists and turns will also be set to 100kph, which is way too fast! They also only use white on their roads so the difference between a 2 lane road and a divided highway is not immediately apparent. Many times I've thought it was 2 lanes in the same direction (as on a highway) only to find cars coming the other way.

 

We didn't get home until 11pm and tomorrow we are hoping to have another quiet day. My leg is feeling better, being able to stretch it a little in the driver's seat really helped!