Thursday, 2 July 2015

A Mad King's Dream

Today we visited one of King Ludwig II's creations - the Royal Palace of Herrenchiemsee. Ludwig intended this to be a copy of the Sun King Louis XIV's palace of Versaillles and a tribute to Louis. The rooms at Herrenchiemsee are modelled on those at Versailles including the copying of the interior decoration, but with a Germanic influence. Ludwig began this project in 1878 but his money ran out and, when he died in 1886, only twenty of the seventy rooms which had been planned were completed. He only stayed in the palace on one occasion and that was for only nine days.

To reach Herrenchiemsee we took the train to Prien station, walked along a laneway to the shore of Chiemsee where we caught a boat to the island of Herreninsel, and then had another short walk through woodland to the palace. We enjoyed the boat trip in the  early morning light with a hazy view of the mountains in the distance and a cool breeze. Germany has been having a heat wave this week and, as the day went on, it became very hot again today.


Our first view of the palace was to see it, as at Versailles, with several glorious fountains and landscaped gardens in front of the long  expanse of the building.



The palace interior can only be viewed on a guided tour and we were booked into an English tour at 11.15am. This tour also seemed to include anyone who did not speak German, and notes in Rumanian and Chinese were handed out to those who needed them.

We were taken from the Ambassador Staircase, through the State Apartments and Ludwig's private apartment. The highlight would have to be the Great Hall of Mirrors which is longer than the hall at Versailles and has 52 candelabra and 33 glass chandeliers with 7,000 candles, which took seventy servants half an hour to light.

(Apologies for these photos of postcards - no photography allowed in the palace!)




After a picnic lunch we visited the King Ludwig II museum in the south wing, where we found some  interesting information and lots of artefacts relating to Ludwig and his family. There was also an audio-visual presentation about Ludwig's last project, the proposed Falkenstein Castle, for which plans were made before his death. Ian and  I have been fascinated by this crazy king and his sad story ever since we visited Neuschwanstein in 2004 and we enjoyed seeing some more of his creations.

The design for Falkenstein Castle
This evening, our last before we leave for home tomorrow, we  had a special dinner at the Drei Mohren restaurant at the Steigenberger hotel just down  the road from where we are staying. We went to the outdoor Grillbuffet where we enjoyed all sorts of grilled meat and salmon, as well as salads and grilled vegetables, and several serves each of lovely little desserts like a minature chocolate mousse, a scoop of icecream in various flavours and some berries.

Tomorrow we will be spending the day in Munich, before we go to the airport in the evening. I think it is  unlikely that I will  be able to post the final blog until we are back in Melbourne on Sunday so you will have to wait until  then to hear about the special place we intend to visit on our last day! In the meantime, go Pies - we are looking forward to a win tomorrow!

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