We left Prague early in the morning on a express-bus service offered by Deutsche Bahn to Nuremberg. The bus left from the main train station. It’s definitely evident that the city is struggling to modernize it’s infrastructure to be comparable to european standards.
The bus ride was quiet, and we connected with the ICE (intercity express) highspeed network in Nuremberg. The trains are impressive and can go as fast as 230 km/h.
We found our hotel quickly as it was close to the hostel that both Pat & Jay stayed in seperately on their last visits to Munich.
We went out that night for beers and to search for the origins Jay’s last name, Keller. The first stop was the Augustiner Keller. A definite must stop for anyone visiting Munich. During the summer, they host an impressive outdoor beer garten, and the Keller (basement) remains open for visitors to go see.
We took a day trip to Schloss Linderhof, the town of Oberammergau and Schloss Neuswannstein. Linderhof was the first stop and was built between 1869 and 1878. King Ludwig II (also known as the “Mad” king) started construction of the retreat in the alps after a visit to Louis the XIV in France at Versailles. The style of the palace is overwhelmingly French and features several busts and statues of the Sun King from France. The most interesting feature in this palace is the magic table which is raised and lowered from below to the King’s dining room. This way the King actually never sees any servants handling his food.
The next stop was a little Bavarian town named Oberammergau. We had enough time to grap a 1EUR ice cream and buy a few postcards. The town is very charming with lots of outdoor frescos paining on the buildings and flower boxes.
The third stop was Schloss Neuschwannstein where first we had a sausage and spatzle lunch with black forest cake for dessert. It was another one of Pat’s food highlights to eat piece of his favorite dessert in the Black Forest. After lunch and a hike up the rock, we shot some photos of the castle from the Marienbruecke and the mountains nearby.
The tour of castle lasted about 45 minutes and you have a chance to see the only completed rooms as the castle was never finished after the King’s mysterious death in 1877. The King became reclusive in his own world of Richard Wagner and middle age fairytales and this culminated in the construction of Neuschwannstein which style integrates scenes from Wagner’s operas, neo-Roman and Byzantine styles. In addition to his fascination since a child with fairytales, he was also very religious and this is particularly vivid in the throne room. The throne room features a massive 1 ton chandelier in the shape of an emperor's crown, a floor mosaic of life on earth consisting of over 2 million tiles and 50 foot ceiling's depicting heaven. Of course Ludwig’s place is between the floor and ceiling as a divine ruler.
The highlight of the castle was spending time together on the balcony of the castle overlooking the town of Schwanngau, Hohenschwangau castle and the Alps. Both of us agreed it was the most amazing view either of us had ever seen and reminded us of our fairytale relationship and the night Jay proposed at the Banff Springs.
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