Linderhof Castle

Last Tuesday, June 5, we visited Linderhof Castle, built in 1874-78, one of "Mad" King Ludwig's three major castles.  My sister and Ginny were here, so we all boarded a train for Oberammergau.  We used the Bavarian train pass that allows up to 5 travelling together to go anywhere in Bavaria on any form of D-Bahn transportation for one day.  This for 29 Euros!  We had a few unexpected glitches with the train and bus schedules, but it all worked out.  The train took about two hours to get to Oberammergau, and because it was a school holiday, the buses out to the castle were on a reduced schedule, so we spent some time having lunch and walked around the town of Oberammergau, which is famous for it's Passion Play that it produces once every ten years.  It is also known for the "Luftmalerei" painting on its buildings, which you will see in the following pictures.

Luftmalerei (painting) on a building

Another example of Luftmalerei

Denise, Mary Ellen, and Ginny in front of one of a well known chain of
 Christmas stores found in many German tourist areas

Linderhoff Castle is the most "cozy" of Ludwig's castle.  It is actually quite small, by castle standards, and did not even have guest rooms - it was just his retreat in the country, opulent, yes, but he was the King after all!  Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures, but all the gold might have been too bright to photograph anyway!

Schloss Linderhoff 

That's us

Looking south from the front entrance

One of the side gardens

The grounds were beautiful and a highlight was the "Grotto", a totally manufactured subterranean environment that Ludwig modeled after Wagner's scenery for his opera Tannhaeuser.  He would have the opera performed just for himself and even had his servants row him around the lake.

Entrance to the Grotto

The Underground Lake in the Grotto

It was fun to have Mary Ellen and Ginny visit us here in Munich before they headed off to Switzerland and Italy.  We all enjoyed a dinner at Gary's favorite restaurant, Haxenbauer, where the roasted pork knuckle is a specialty.