Today was cold, wet, and rainy with bouts of ice and snow. I
really blame this on the curse I inherited from my mother, but I digress. Even
though mother nature was being moody, we carried on like the postman or like
determined tourist.
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| At the top of Mount Zugspitze we look so European |
Our first stop was Lake Eibsee, which was pretty except for
the fog and the rain. We might of walked around it was raining and slowly
turning into slushy rain. It also did not help that our traveling companions
did not pack rain gear. So we headed up the mountain. We took the cog railway
up to the top of Mount Zugspitze, which is Germany’s highest mountain peak. There
is a gondola that will take you to the top in 10 minutes compared with the
trains 30 – 40 minutes, but the gondola was undergoing maintenance. The only
down side of the train is you spend about 20minutes in a tunnel and pop out
right before the peak. At that point you get out wander around a bit and look at
the glacier then take a 2 minute gondola ride to the peak. On the train ride up
the mountain there are some beautiful views of the Lake Eibsee and you can
watch as the terrain becomes more and more snow covered. I ended up having the
snow song from a White Christmas stuck in my head because of the snow. At the top of the mountain, where they didn’t
clear the snow away it was about 2 feet deep and still snowing. Sadly it was so cloudy at the top of the
mountain all we go were pictures of clouds and a few birds. On a clear day apparently you can see out
about 150km or more. So we headed down
the mountain, and of course as we headed down the mountain the clouds
cleared. From the mountain we headed
over to Cloister Ettal, mostly so I could pick up brandy, since that is what it
is known for.
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| Looking at the back of Linderhof Palace |
The last event of the day was a private tour of Linderhof Palace, which is where Ludwig II (Mad King Ludwig) actually lived. (Mad King
Ludwig also built Neuschwanstien, the model for the Disney World Castle, and
the most famous of his three residences.) The guide was very informative,
lively and fun and pointed out many of the palaces interesting features like the
300 vases and the dinner table that disappears into the floor so the servants
never have to enter the room. The place
is small in place terms with only 6 main rooms however those 6 rooms have a
total of 13.2 lbs of gold plating in them except for the silver room which is
of course plated in silver. We then
exited the place and walked up to the mobile house (if you call 300 pieces mobile)
with the bejeweled peacock and then to the grotto. The grotto is one you always
see in pictures with the swan boat in the underwater cave. Well the whole
grotto is man made with tiny iron bar nets covered in plaster and stone. It is
impressive. That ended our tour of
Linderhof Palace and thus our day. Tomorrow
we head up to Munich for the day.
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