Linderhof Castle
Friday was a pretty rainy day again and we let the kids sleep in. I went for a long walk around Oberau and ended up near the golf course, which was pretty nice. I saw some people practicing in the rain but no one was on the course. I spoke with one of the golfers and he said the course costs about 65 Euro during the week and 75 Euro on the weekend. Not much different from public courses in the US. It was set at the base of a huge mountain and the scenery while playing a round of golf is pretty special. It wasn’t anything like Pebble Beach, but it was nice.
Once the kids woke up we were heading to the Linderhof Castle, one of the castles built by King Ludwig II. He was the same king that built the Neuschwanstein Castle we visited on our way to Oberau. The pictures I saw online make me think that it was this huge castle with a big lake in front of it, so I was expecting something close to Newschwanstein. We arrived and it was still raining a bit. Drew and I both brought our cameras and again, Drew was in heaven. There were beautiful pictures everywhere. Drew has started to really get good at taking pictures of plants with water dripping from them or water on the leaves. So, with the rain we have had and the beautiful surroundings there have been hundreds of opportunities to focus on her new specialty.
We started to walk up to the castle and was saw some beautiful gardens and a big set of stairs to the right that lead to a perch that overlooks the castle. As we got closer I didn’t see any huge buildings, just a relatively nice building on the left with a bunch of people on line out front. Could this be the castle? I couldn’t believe that the castle was as small as it was. I was in such amazement that I walked to the back of the castle to see if I was missing something. In reality this was just a good sized, ornately decorated, over the top wood carvings and hand painted walls and ceilings, home. This is where King Ludwig spent half of his time as the king. Again, when he died they made this castle open to tourism the following year.
From the top of the large outdoor stairs, the view of the castle is very nice. Once I got up there I could see where the picture was taken that I saw online. The “lake” in front of the castle was a large pond with a really nice sculpture/fountain out front. We took the tour, which displayed the kings ornate rooms, including a huge bedroom with a massive bed for him. The king was 6’3″ tall so he needed a big bed. The tour guide also said that the king never had guests to this house, so it was just for him. When we were done with the tour it was like pulling teeth to get Drew to the car as she wanted to spend another hour or two taking pictures. It was a really cool thing to see, but we were off to find some more gelato, which was located in the town about 10 km away. Yes, still on the gelato hunt even in Germany!
We found the gelato store in the rain and hung out in this small tour for an hour or so before heading back to make dinner and have another relaxing night at the apartment. Ilise bought some chicken, rice and some salad stuff and we made a very nice quiet dinner. We all enjoyed ourselves and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour. In the end Drew had a really hard time falling asleep, so around 4 am we were playing raindrop music to get her to bed. She finally fell asleep and a few hours later I was up to start a new day. All in all, it was a good day as I continue to gain more clarity about numerous areas of our lives. This trip has been eye opening and cleansing in so many ways. I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip and continuing to see the kids grow and enjoy our time as a family.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 