Driving from Garmish back home, Nathaniel saw a sign for a castle. I was not on board for another trip-- I was so tired and just wanted to get home.
I'm glad I relented.
Turns out, it was the palace of King Ludwig II, a reclusive king who built many castles (including the famous Neuschwanstein-- or more recognizable as Cinderella's castle since Disney apparently used it as inspiration). Linderhof Palace was the only residence completed before his death and he spent most of his time there. It's incredibly small, especially by "palace" standards.. only 10 rooms, if I remember right. I remain annoyed that they didn't allow pictures inside... but oh well. ;) The most outstanding thing to me was that this crazy king was so private that he had his dining room built over the kitchen. The dining table was built to serve only one (by a king's standards-- 6 by the rest of ours...) and it could be lowered into the kitchen to be served and then raised up so he could eat without seeing any servants. Bizarre. The palace was lovely though-- and it was really fascinating because everything was original and more or less as it was when it was in use.
The little chapel on the grounds. Apparently Ludwig II had a thing with peacocks.. maybe for their arrogance ? ;) At the palace he had two peacock statues that would be placed outside the palace doors when he was in residence, and brought indoors when he was not.
Tamar's profile. haha!Okay. Seriously, the weirdest part of the whole place was that Ludwacko II had his own private little grotto built! This guy was way ahead of his time (perhaps this was another inspiration for Disneyland...)! He even had different lighting that could be set up to listen to music of the various operas from his favorite composer who had inspired this craziness.
Fancy boat, right? He'd have his servants row him around in a circle in it.It's all so impressive... and all so, so bizarre.
What an adventure. Here is my littlest guy burning off energy before getting strapped back into the carseat.
1 comment:
I LOVE, LOVE, Linderhof. Like you said, so cool, but so bizarre. The gardens are beautiful and everything is just so peaceful. It was sad. He was actually way ahead of his time... the tour guide said that nowadays we would just call him eccentric, like a Liberace. He had to recluse himself because he was still very into the arts in a day and age where socialism, and a focus on science and math were becoming the rage. He was turned down for trying to start many music schools (but there is one that he founded that is still running) and arts programs. Kinda crazy, but still SUPER intriguing. I got a little carried away one time reading all about him after I had visited his castles. I want to go to Herrenchiemse (in between Neuschwanstein and Munich, on an island). I love the picture up on the hill with the castle behind him.
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