By now we have seen 2 out of 3 of mad King Ludwig II's castles, so yesterday we went to the third. It is an attempt to copy Louis XIV's castle at Versailles, however he only got it partially completed before he bankrupted the Bavarian treasury. Once again, this was a castle enjoyed only by the king--apparently he was very shy and never invited guests, so he lived in his own fantasy world. The castle is in the alps on a large island in a huge lake. The setting is truly beautiful and once again we got to enjoy picturesque alpine meadows in springtime, dotted with wildflowers and the trees all decorated with their bright green new growth at the tips. I've been breathing in the smell of lilacs--simply dreamy. And the houses all have their flower boxes out on the balcony railings. Honestly, it just looks like every postcard you've ever seen.
OK, back to the castle. The front has elaborate water fountains with some massive statuary, formal gardens, and lots of statues lining the reflection pools, and a long vista view down to the lake. The finished rooms that we toured through were over-the-top splendferous, as you might expect. Everything covered in gold leaf (and yes it is possible to OD on gold leaf). The great hall of mirrors is even larger and more elaborate than the one at Versailles and has so many chandeliers that it takes 2200 candles for all of them--and that is just for one evening of light. I find that I can look at stuff like this for only a short time before I hit overload--there is so much to see and so much detail Something like eating too much of a rich dessert.
The weather was perfect, cool enough that I could wear a light sweater but warm enough to feel comfortable. The boat ride over to the island was idyllic, and my sister and I enjoyed a lovely lunch on the castle terrace after the tour, just sitting and watching the fountains and the puffy clouds. By the time we boarded the boat to go back, the skies were darkening and by the time we reached the dock it was pouring. And there I was in my sandals, cotton pants, t-shirt, and cardigan sweater. No raincoat and no umbrella. By the time I walked 5 minutes to the bus, I was sopping wet, drenched to the skin--ended up shaking my head to shake out the water and drops went flying everywhere. So by the time we reached the hotel, 1.5 hours later, I was thoroughly unhappy. After the previous 2 tours I was so tired and spent that I felt like a death donkey. After this tour, I was just a drowned rat.
We figured out today that so far we have traveled by plane train, bus, tram, auto, boat, and horse-drawn wagon.
Today we slept in late and then went back to the Hofbrauhaus for a late lunch. This time I had Bavarian meat loaf which I would describe as a very thick slice of hot balogna. If you like balogna sandwiches, you would like this. Then we wandered a bit, saw 2 churches, did a bit of shopping, found a good chocolate store (finally!) and called it a day. Tomorrow will be a long day so we need to rest up.
On a side note, one of the challenging things about these tours is that although we always book English-speaking tours, the guides are not native speakers of English and their grasp of the language varies greatly. I am usually at least 1 second behind what the guide is saying because between the heavy accent and the frequently different pronunciation, it takes that long for me to figure out what he is trying to say. For example, ca-TOLE-lik for catholic, and BARE-ak for baroque. I usually get it in the end but I am always catching up.
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