Monday

Monday is Neuschwanstein day! It's also the fourth of July.

The group met up at 8:00 to take a bus to the castle. We spent the bus ride blasting American songs and singing along. The bus we company we use is called the Bavaria Reisen Kriege and we get an awesome green bus - it's based in Holzkirchen and this is our 50th year with the same company.

We caught a glimpse of the castle on the drive, and then the bus dropped us off at the base of the mountain. A short wait for tickets and then we started up. When I was here in 2005 we walked up the normal footpath- this time we climbed the gorge between the castle and the actual mountain. It was a very fun hike, and not too strenuous.

Neuschwanstein was built in around 1880 though is incomplete. It was supposed to be the home of Ludwig II, king of Bavaria. Ludwig was (disputably) crazy, and decided to sink his fortune into building massive castles. Each room is modeled on a Wagner opera, so there are some odd paintings on the walls. Ludwig only lived in the castle for about a month before he was deposed of and died under mysterious circumstances.

Once on the top we milled around a bit in the horde of American and Japanese tourists outside the castle. Our tour was OK, but not quite as impressive as I remembered it. The castle is pretty cool, but it's certainly a massive tourist enterprise. At least we had a German tour.

After seeing all of the rooms we were taken out through two gift shops and took a short hike over to a bridge across the gorge from the castle. I forgot to bring my water, so I was pretty dehydrated at this point, but it was still a good time. I have a few excellent pictures from this vantage point.

Afterwards I had an awful Currywurst at the bottom of the hill along with a couple bottles of water. It was my first Currywurst, a Berlin specialty, but I don't think this was a good example - probably because we're 400 miles from Berlin

We packed up on the bus after lunch and headed for a well known church in the area. It's in the Rococo style, which is not my favorite, but the church was still impressive. It had a beautiful organ, too. The sound system consisted of column loudspeakers, like many of the churches I've visited here. The brand was Straesser loudspeakers, which is not something I've heard of before. I like finding out about all these small German manufactures - it's interesting.

The final stop of the day was Schloss Linderhof, another castle built by Ludwing II. This one is small, but he actually spent most of his life living in it. It's modeled after Versailles, and I was disgusted by the Baroque architecture. It's an architecture of excess, and left me wanting to go photograph a nice Bauhaus building...

That's not to say it wasn't worth the visit, though. The castle was impressive, after all.

After a tour of the palace and a stroll through the garden, we visited the fake cave Ludwig built as an opera house. I guess it's impressive if you've never been in a real cave - I found it a bit boring.

We ate dinner at a restaurant and brewery at a convent close to Holzkirchen. I had a tasty Schnitzel and then explored the convent. Unfortunately, the light wasn't just right, but I think I got a couple good pictures.

It was late when I got home and I pretty much passed out right away.