September 9, 2015

September 9, 2015

This morning we checked out of our hotel, and caught the train, following the Main River downstream to our starting point of Frankfurt am Main.  At the airport check-in, we are asked if we are willing to be bumped off our flight. Aimee and I both respond ‘yes’ enthusiastically.  We are hoping for a future plane ticket credit and an extra day in Germany.  Since Lufthansa is on strike (again), I am thinking we have a good chance.  We won’t know until boarding time.  Fortunately we are travelling light and not checking bags; we can be flexible.

In the meantime, we go through passport control.  This time when I practice my limited German on the inspector, he corrects me and says my pronunciation is the Berlin dialect.  No wonder I have been getting smiles from southern Germans.  Nobody told me until now, when we are ready to leave.

 

Once our plane starts boarding, the gate agent calls us up.  Yes! We got it.  At the podium the agent says our seat assignment was changed. I mutter, “what, no bump?”  She shakes her head, and then I look at the seat.  Row 7.  Then it sinks in; that is First Class!  Aimee and I run onto the plane.  I am trying to act like we fly those seats all the time.  Hard to do, when my wife is dancing in the aisle with a huge grin our her face.  First Class on an international flight is a true luxury. Instead of being crammed into a sardine can, we can stretch out, even lay completely flat like a bed.  We are greeted with a Mimosa drink, and an hors-d'oeuvre plate.  Later it is salad and a mixed drink, followed by a delicious entree served on real plates.  No foil covered mush for us.  I had to laugh when the pilot announced that we were going to arrive early.  Aimee yelled, “Noooo!”.  She didnt want the flight to end.

After a very long travel day, we arrive in Chicago. We are happy to be back in the US, the home of free toilets.  Despite the need to always have coins in your pocket when nature calls, we had a great trip.  The Swiss countryside was outstandingly beautiful.  If we were billionaires, we would have stayed there longer.  Germany was full of history and outstanding royal palaces and castles.  By sticking to only German speaking countries we delved deeper into the local culture and cuisine. While Switzerland was over-reliant on cheese and potatoes, German food was surprisingly diverse and tasty.  It wasn’t all sausage and sauerkraut.

 

While it is dangerous to generalize, we did find that Germans meet a lot of the stereotypes we read about.  They are hard-working but after a long day, they like their beer.  Biergartens can be found everywhere and steins come in two sizes, large and extra large.
 
Germans also seem to willingly follow orders.  Most of the local transportation and parking is on the honor system.  We were never checked to see if we paid for our parking or for our subway ticket. Nobody jaywalks either, no matter what the level of traffic. 

September 8, 2015

September 8, 2015

Instead of clearing skies, we woke to foggy weather in Wurzburg.  The weatherman got it wrong. We spent the late morning walking around the very small Old Town.  We never strayed too far from the Market Plaza. There are three churches clustered together.  We saw one yesterday. The second, the New Munster is a large domed church that has some very modern brightly colored Impressionist paintings decorating it. This must have been a modern addtion after it was fire-bombed in WWII. The last, Marienkapelle is a small two-toned, burnt red and white, church with famous sculptures of Adam and Eve on the outside facade.

We took some time perusing the Farmer's Market. Aimee and I were both fascinated by a lady selling artichokes. She sadly told us many of her plants were ruined by a burst of hot weather that caused them to go to seed. We thought that a positive.  The artichoke has a most beautiful flower. We had no idea!

Also on market plaza is the Old Rathaus (Town Hall).  It looks old (and out of place) but it held a very interesting tiny room around back.  Inside was a scale model of Wurzburg after it was bombed, just three weeks before the end of WWII.  Virtually every building was in ruins. Lining the wall were a half dozen storyboards giving a dramatic and moving recount of the event.

A few blocks away is the Main (pronounced Mine) River and the Old Bridge spanning it.  Built in 1133, it is the second oldest in Germany. Similar to Prague’s Bridge, it is lined with a dozen statues of Wurzburg’s saints and bishops. From the bridge we get a great view of the fortress above town and the vineyards lining the river.  These riverside grape plants are the source of the local Franconian wine.

After lunch, the weather improved a little and we took a walk across the Main River and hiked uphill to the Fortress of Marienberg.  This was the home of the Prince Archbishop before the Residenz was built, in the era when being ransacked by your neighbors was a distinct possibility.  Marienberg is a bristling fortress with multiple layers of defensive walls. Inside the castle we toured the Prince Bishop Museum.  It is only mildly interesting.  We like the nice views looking down on Wurzburg better.  

On the return to Wurzburg, we again cross the Old Bridge.  This time we notice lots of people milling about drinking wine on the city end.  It looks like fun to us, so we order two white Franconian wines from the Old Mill-turned wine bar and join the locals. We also toast our last night in Europe.

Afterwards we window shop a little and then have dinner at the Rathaus Cellar restaurant.

September 7, 2015

September 7, 2015

Our fairy tale Rothenburg burst today.  We awoke not only to a drizzling rain, but it is also Monday and the festival is over. The re-enactors have brought in their cars and they are packing up their medieval tents.  The city of Rothenburg allows cars inside the wall on weekdays.  All this means we are dragged back into the present.  With our spirits broken, we wait to the last minute before checking out of our hotel and heading to the train station. We buy tickets and an hour later we arrive in Wurzburg.

After checking in to our hotel, we head around the corner to have lunch in the Burgerspital.  Spital is German for hospital. Wurzburg seems to be slightly unique in Germany.  Instead of lots of beer halls, it has medieval hospitals that finance their charity by producing wine.  The Franconia region produces a different style of wine (drier) than the normal Rieslings of Germany.  I think they are better and perhaps that is why the Spitals were able to make money for their charity work. Incidentally, the last few days we have been in the Franconia region of Bavaria.  Napoleon gave Franconia to the Bavarian king but it has been resented ever since.  Franconians don’t like being called Bavarians.

After lunch we head down the street to the Residenz. This is the palace of the prince archbishop that ruled this area.  We start our tour by walking the gardens in the back.  Aimee likes the sculpted trees, while we both love the wide variety of colorful flowers.

At 3 pm we meet up with our English guide who takes us through the interior of the palace.  He is great.  As a PhD student doing his dissertation on the bishops, he is a font of knowledge on the history of this palace.  The Holy Roman Emperor gave several cities to prince archbishops because they were easier to manage than kings.  There were no heirs to worry about and incompetent bishops could be fired and replaced.  The Residenz is a World Heritage Site because it is a Baroque masterpiece with several ceiling frescoes by Tiepolo.  I got a couple photos before I learned that pics were not allowed.  I wish I could have taken more, but some rooms were just not capable of being appreciated by photo. They have to be experienced.

In the last room, we see a large photo of Wurzburg in 1945. The city was wiped out.  I feel like I am repeating myself, because I have said that everywhere.  It seems only a few spots in Germany were spared complete destruction.  The Residenz got hit with bombs, but the ceilings of the two largest rooms were constructed so solidly, they survived.  Also a US Monuments Man (think George Clooney movie) quickly erected a temporary ceiling to protect what remained from further damage.  Much of the Residenz has since been beautifully restored.  We also walked inside the Residenz chapel on our own.  It likewise has an excellent Baroque Tiepolo decor.

Afterwards, we walked a little around Old Town Wurzburg. Little survived.  Mostly it is modern Wurzburg with a few old buildings thrown in.  One stop was St Kilian Cathedral. St Kilian was one of three Irish monks who christianized Wurzburg. Unfortunately this martyr ended up losing his head, literally. The church has nothing noteworthy.  It is starting to drizzle again so we head back to the hotel.

For dinner we went to the other major hospital winery in town.  It just happens to be across the square from our hotel.  Both Aimee and I selected white wines.  We tasted each others and then we traded.  I do like drinking for charity, but I have to say I miss my beer.

September 6, 2015

September 6, 2015

I really liked Nuremberg.  It is a nice town, with some interesting tourist sites, but is not jam packed with visitors like most have been.  We walked to the train station, bought our ticket and then I got Aimee her favorite breakfast, a big cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant.

We took the train an hour west to the little town of  Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  The second part of the name means "on the Tauber River" to distinguish it from the other couple Rothenburgs in Germany.  As we approached the first gate of this old walled city, I felt transported back to the Middle Ages (it wasn’t just the cobblestones our roller luggage were bumping on).  The double tower gate looks so authentic. And to our right in the grassy moat are dozens of tents with people in Medieval Era attire.  Turns out we are coming to the best preserved town in all of Germany during their annual Fall Festival when the city celebrates its history.

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we return to the encampment.  It reminds me of the Renaissance Faires at home but much better. No hokey sword fights.  These re-enactors are camping for real in medieval tents, living totally in the period.

We re-enter the city and walk toward the main Market Square.  We pass more people in period costume.  The central plaza is a hubbub of activity, with groups playing music and singing.

Since it is a very chilly morning, we duck indoors at St Jakob’s  Cathedral.  When it turned Protestant most of the ornamentation was removed during the Purge.  A couple historic wooden altar pieces of exquisite detail survived.

The festival activities are scattered throughout the small City, so we repeatedly walk from the central Market Plaza to the City Wall, along the ramparts, and then back to the Center.  The medieval entertainment includes music and dancing,  historic firemen, oompah bands, lots of crafts (rope making, basket weaving, blacksmiths and wood carvers), and delightful trials of scofflaws, one of which gets punished in a dunking basket.

The walk down the City Wall was cool.  The city is still totally surrounded by a tall wall with thirty towers connected by an inside passage for the defenders.  I had to keep an eye on my head because of the low wood beams.  The walls are so well preserved they could easily be a set for a movie.

At noon, we stumbled upon an old monastery serving beer and brats for lunch.  We ate outside on a terrace overlooking the steep Tauber River valley.  Below we can see an old stone arch bridge crossing the river.

In another direction our strolling took us out a city gate into the Castle Garden.  This narrow green section is where the old long-gone medieval castle stood.  It sat on the steepest part where the river made a sharp bend.  The ideal spot for a fort.  Later the castle walls were extended to protect a small town. Those gates and a few wall sections still exist.  Later the town walls were expanded again to protect a larger town.  The fact you can still recognize the growth over time is the hallmark of a preserved city.

We next toured the Crime and Punishment Museum.  It turned out to be a bore.  It had lots of the paraphernalia of torture (dozens of Executioner Axes and just as many iron Shame Masks), but you can't look at it too much.  Clearly the Middle Ages was a cruel time.  The museum also had lots of written archives on crime and justice but they were hard to study when we both just wanted to go back outside to the fun.

We had dinner at a popular restaurant on the central Market Plaza.  At 8 pm we went on the highly recommended Nightwatchman's Tour.  It is led by a costumed guy who pulls you back into the Middle Ages.  He interwove the history of the town and Medieval life with great humor.  The hour was over in a blink of an eye.  Never have we learned history so easily.  Being on the intersection of two great trade routes, Rothenburg was one of the largest and wealthiest cities of the Middle Ages.  The population was decimated in the religious battles of the Thirty Years War and laid dormant waiting for tourism to bring it back to life. Interestingly it was almost destroyed in WWII because a Nazi General hid out here.  But saved by an American general who remembered his mother touring the city and loving it.

When we finally get back to our room, we are exhausted from this full day of fun.  Too bad since this is our nicest room, huge with a canopy bed, and sitting area.

September 5, 2015

September 5, 2015

Before breakfast we took the subway to a local laundry to freshen up some of our clothes.  While Aimee figured out how to work these German appliances, I went in search of coffee and chocolate croissants.  

Afterwards, we took the tram southeast to Nuremberg’s Documentation Center.   Nuremberg has one of these history museums because the Nazis held annual Party Rallies here.  I have seen them on old newsreels.  They were not just meetings of a few top officials.  The Rallies were week-long staged events with 500,000 participants.  Theatrics and marching were emphasized.

The Nazis planned a number of colossal structures here, but the war halted construction of most. The museum is in a wing of the large unfinished Congress Hall, an amphitheater-like structure that would have held 50,000 people. From Obersalzberg, we know these Nazi museums have little English, so we get the Audio Guide.  It takes us several hours to go through the exhibits.  The museum covers the history of the Nazi Party and its rise to power.  It concentrates on the party rallies.  Hitler staged them here, at the old unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, to help legitimize his Third Reich and were an important part of his propaganda campaign. While interesting, Aimee and I were led to believe there would be more information on how Hitler gained such devoted following by the German people.  Hitler employed a lot of the techniques that modern politicians use today, like writing a book, staging a movie, hiring PR experts, and quashing any contrary opinions.

After the museum we walked the huge Rally Grounds.  The main stop is Zeppelin Field.  This is where most of the marching took place.  It has a large grandstand, famous for having its big Swastika blown up on film by the US Army in 1945.  The Rally Grounds are now used by the local community.  Today, Zeppelin Field is overrun with German Shepherds in some kind of dog show. Ironic, since this dog was the favorite of the SS.  In another part of the rally ground known as the Great Road, a large carnival is being held.

Back in Nuremberg Old Town, we have dinner at BarFusser, the large beer hall by our hotel.  We have the local Nuremberg sausage.  They are about a third the normal size but you get lots more of them.

September 4, 2015

September 4, 2015

The last four days we stayed at a farmhouse inn in Salzburg on recommendation by Rick Steves’ guidebook.  It had a good location, with easy access by car and on the bus line to downtown. It even came with views of frolicking horses; but on the downside it came with the smell of farm animals.

We rented a car for our Bavaria week because it is the most convenient way to visit the countryside. Cars come with their own issues.  Europe has a different standard lane width than the US.  The road we drove today to reach the highway was literally one lane wide with two way traffic. Every so often I had to pull onto the shoulder to let oncoming traffic pass.

We drove the Autobahn all the way from Salzburg to Munich.  When we returned the car, the inspector noticed some tiny scrape on a hubcap and pulled the manager in.  I had heard German car rental companies are notorious for scamming repair charges.  When they saw me flipping through pics on my camera, the problem disappeared. (I always take before and after photos when renting cars.) With all the narrow lanes we traveled, it was wondrous I didn’t have a bunch of dings on the tires.

We took the subway to the Munich train station. I notice a couple dozen police gathering by the track from Vienna, so I figure something is up. When it arrives, they pull over everyone with Middle Eastern looks.  Europe is in an immigrant crisis.  We just happened to watch the European news last night and the issue came to a head yesterday with immigrants rushing the train in Budapest and refusing to get off.  Hungary had to cancel all international trains.  The immigrants are trying to find any way to reach the northern countries with their generous social benefits.

From Munich, we took the fast train to Nuremburg.  This train reached 150 mph at peak speed.  After checking in to our hotel, we started off with a walking tour of the Old Town.

Nuremberg (or Nurnberg) has 90% of its medieval town walls still intact.  Surprising since most of Nuremberg was destroyed during WWII. It has been rebuilt in a sort of modern German classic architecture. Despite the damage it has quite a few unique medieval structures. One of our first stops is the Granary Storehouse.  It looks like a very large house with an abnormally large attic area. Our guidebook says it is one of eleven the city had.  I don’t think I have run into another city with such storage capability.  Our next stop was St Lawrence Cathedral.  It is an ancient Gothic structure that suffered heavy damage.  A lot of the treasured artifacts had been removed and stored underground.  It has been repaired beautifully and has an abnormal number of art pieces inside.

Another interesting stop was at a medieval tower house. It looks like a castle keep and was built at a time before the city walls when you had to defend your own house.  Down the middle of the city flows the Pegnitz River.  Extending out into the river is the Hospice of the Holy Spirit, one of the largest hospitals of the Middle Ages.

From the river we worked our way through the other half of the Old City, up to the Castle.  After hiking up the castle hill, we tour the museum inside.  It is mildly interesting.  It has lots of cool medieval weapons and armor on display.  It also has extensive exhibits on the old Holy Roman Empire.  This loose confederation of the old German kingdoms was not hereditary but an elected position so its capital moved around.  

Nuremberg was its unofficial capital because it held an administrative function.  After the HRE was dissolved by Napoleon, Nuremberg went into decline.  At the top of the high castle tower, where we got a great view of the city, were posted photos of Nuremberg after WWII. Startling how in one day, a thousand years of history could be wiped off the map.

Just below the castle lies the home of Nuremberg's favorite son, Albrecht Durer.  Durer was a famous artist, especially of engravings, who brought the Renaissance from Italy to Germany.  Walking back toward our hotel, we stopped for dinner at a large beer hall that sits in the cellar of the Granary.

September 3, 2015

September 3, 2015

Last night we hopped on the bus back into Salzburg.  After another nice dinner in a basement restaurant, we walked to Mirabell Palace for a rendition of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nacht Musik.  One part of it is very recognizable. The nice thing about Mozart is that the music is very melodic and easy listening.  Plus the beautiful palace setting with its great acoustics makes it a cool place to listen to this quintet of strings and piano. You could imagine being a royal and paying Mozart a pittance to come and entertain you after dinner.

This morning we returned to Mirabell Palace, this time touring the large and beautiful gardens. Several spots had cameo roles in the Sound of Music during the Do-Re-Mi scene. The grounds were mobbed with tour groups and their guides. We strolled the north side of the river climbing the ridge to get a great view of the Old Town and the towering Hohensalzburg Castle looming overhead.

After a tasty pizza lunch, we hike up the castle hill to tour Hohensalzburg.  This fortress complex is one of the largest in Europe and it was never taken by force. Not surprising to me. It is a steep uphill climb to the isolated peak.
Salzburg for most of history was an independent principality governed not by a king but by a prince archbishop.  Salzburg (Salt Castle) got wealthy exporting salt from the local mines. With all the riches, it was able to build large defenses and pay tribute for alliances with strong neighbors. Fortifications were enhanced when the threat of invasion from the Ottoman Turks was highest.  The Ottoman force was stopped in Vienna.

Hohensalzburg is a large complex fortress.  There are several museums.  A small one has displays of Marionette puppets popular in Austria.  Another has weapons of war and implements of torture. The last section through some of the interior requires an escort with audio guide.  It takes us through a prison room and then up to a viewing platform atop the castle.

After the castle tour, we catch the bus home but exit early at the Augustine Monastery. The monks also run a brewery.  On entering the building, we find the beer hall is enormous.  It is mostly self serve and very popular with the local population. We grab a stein off the rack, rinse it at a fountain, and then pay to have it filled. There are a dozen deli-type kiosks selling all kinds of food.  We grab a barbeque rib dinner. Interestingly instead of popcorn or nuts, shaved and salted radish is the big beer go-with.

September 2, 2015

September 2, 2015

It rained all night as forecasted and we woke to overcast skies. This is a good time to explore Salzburg.  We hop on the bus and four miles later we are downtown. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and is probably why the city is on the tourist map.  Our first stop is Mozart Wohnhaus where he grew up.  It now holds a museum on his life.  We spend an hour listening to the audio tour but the music falls on deaf ears with us. Mozart and his sister were music prodigies from early childhood (composing music at the age of five).  They caused a sensation in Europe and toured the royal courts putting on exhibitions.  This experience added to their extensive musical education. Years later Mozart toured Europe looking to find a royal patron with little success. Fortunately he was a successful free-lance artist selling operas that subsidized his lavish lifestyle. Sadly Mozart died at the young age of 35, probably because of the constant travelling he endured. Being a musician in the pre-LP and CD era was tough.

Crossing the Salzach River we enter the Old Town and walk down Getreidegasse.  This is the old commercial street and is famous for all the wrought iron signs hanging from every establishment. Many are not that old including the one for McDonald's.  Others are cute with symbols of their wares.  

We pass several churches.  The first, St Peters has an attached cemetery.  It is unusual in that the graves are in cubicles with iron fencing.  It was the inspiration for the graveyard scene in the Sound of Music.  We also walked through the Salzburg Cathedral.  It is big and grand reflecting the wealth that the salt trade brought to Salzburg. We finished our tour by hiking up the mountain upon which the castle looms over the city.  We don’t tour it but we do enjoy the fine views of the city below.

September 1, 2015

September 1, 2015

From our digs in Salzburg, we drove south across the border back into Germany and the Berchtesgaden area.  The Berchtesgaden is a little finger of Germany that extends into the Alps making it Germany’s mountain getaway.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the much loved classic ‘Sound of Music’  We watched the movie a month ago and Aimee said, “Let's go”. Although much of it was filmed in Salzburg, the opening sequence is across the border in the Berchtesgaden.  In the town of Marktschellenberg, we climb the local hill to the pastures above town.  Aimee gets out and immediately starts twirling and belting out the ‘The hills are alive’.  She thinks she is Julie Andrews!

After I restrain Aimee we head back to the valley and travel farther south to the Konigssee and Berchtesgaden National Park.  The Konigssee is an ‘inland fjord’, a long narrow glacier-carved lake surrounded by steep mountains.  So steep that we cannot hike the perimeter.  To explore this pretty spot, we buy tickets for a cruise down the lake.  We board a small boat packed to the gills with Germans.  It is a little too tight for my likes.  Plus there is a German narrator who rambles on the entire time. He must be funny as he gets frequent laughs. The one part of the entertainment I could understand is when the boat stops in mid-lake and the captain comes back and pulls out a bugle from underneath the seat next to me.  He plays an intermittent tune that is answered by echoes off the cliff.  Pretty Cool!

Shortly afterward we disembark on a spit of land sticking out into the lake containing the onion-domed church of St Bartholomew.  We do a circular walk around the area and then reboard for the return trip.  The trip back is far less crowded, making it easier to enjoy the wonderful scenery.  It is also peaceful as the boats are electric powered making them very quiet.

Back at the dock we have a quick lunch and then tour around the Berchtesgaden area.  We find a cute little church framed by the surrounding mountains.  

On our way back to Salzburg, we stop again in Obersalzberg.  This time we stop at the Documentation Center.  There are several in Germany and they seem to be a euphemism for Nazi Museum.  The museum is large but is virtually all in German.  I think they are designed for Germans to learn their history, and they are hesitant to provide other languages that might make them a Nazi tourist site.

Obersalzberg has a Documentation center because it was the location of Hitler’s country home.  After buying property here, he proceeded to construct a large subterranean complex assuming he might have to direct the war effort from underground.  Obersalzberg was destroyed by bombers near the end of the war. The only things that survived was yesterday's mountaintop Eagle's Nest and the underground bunkers.  We explore some of this vast subterranean city.  It gives Aimee the creeps.

Since the museum is in German, we don't spend a lot of time in it.  It covers everything from the rise of Nazism through to the end of WWII. We collect all the English handouts to read later.  We do surprisingly watch a couple films.  Although they have little English, they don't need a lot of explanation.  These films don’t hold a lot back.  They show gruesome scenes that are probably meant to shock young Germans.

One of the reasons I wanted to see the Eagles Nest is because I had seen it many times on old Hitler newsreels.  Or at least I thought I did. Now I realize that it wasn’t the Eagles Nest (he spent little time there). The film reels were from the terrace of his home here in the village of Obersalzberg.  That home was destroyed, but the Documentation Center building has been built with a patio that simulates the original Hitler home.

From Obersalzberg we head back to Salzburg. We have an hour before dinner so we drive north a few miles to Leopold Palace. This is the Von Trapp mansion film set from the Sound of Music. It is now an elegant hotel. Aimee and I walk in the front door like we are staying there, and take a photo on the back terrace. From there we head home and eat at the same restaurant as last night.  It is delicious again.  We found a hidden gem.

August 31, 2015

August 31, 2015

I had a chance to meet the famous King Ludwig II today, and although he seemed stiff and a little quiet, he was a pleasant fellow. He told me we should visit his third palace. He said it is a little hard to get to, but well worth the trip. So we checked out of our hotel and drove east.  

We rented a Citroen, with manual transmission, the standard in Europe. The first time I put the car in neutral and let the clutch out the car died. Aimee asked, 'Don’t you remember how to drive a stick?'  I was thinking the same thing.  It turns out the car automatically kills the engine when stopped to save fuel.

After almost ninety minutes driving down narrow country roads, we finally reach the Autobahn headed to Salzburg. We aren't on it very long before we exit and head toward Chiemsee.  Known as “the Bavarian Sea”, this large lake has several islands, one of which contains the third of Mad King Ludwig’s castles.  With the Bavarian Castle Pass we bought, our visit of Herrenchiemsee should cost us nothing.  Except we had to pay for parking, our bathroom visits. and then the boat ride to the island.  But the tour was free!

Like all of Ludwig’s castle tours, I couldn’t take photos but I did buy the postcards so I can take photos of photos.  Aimee and I are glad we made the stop as it is very cool.  This castle was designed to mimic and honor the famous French Sun King, Louis XIV and his Versailles Palace. Herrenchiemsee is like a mini Versailles, cut out of the forests of this island.  It has great fountains outside and lavish decorations inside including an awesome Hall of Mirrors, which I think looks better than the original. But for us, this palace reinforces that Ludwig was mad or at least supremely self-absorbed.  He longed to be a true autocrat as the French king was.  He wanted nothing to do with his subjects.  Even his dining table was on an elevator platform that could be lowered down and filled so he didn’t have to interact with servants.

Like Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee is only partially finished. Ludwig died before he could finish them and nobody else had the money or desire to complete them. Herrenchiemsee had a bonus because we had a chance to see a similar hallway, in the finished state directly compared to the unfinished.

We feel compelled do a whirlwind tour of Herrenchiemsee.  Mother Nature is plotting against us. The weather is forecasted to turn rainy and overcast and we have some sights ahead of us that really need clear weather.  From the palace it is a 20 minute walk to the dock, 15 minutes on the ferry, and then an hour by car to the far eastern end of Bavaria, in the Berchtesgaden Land.  Berchtesgaden is Bavaria’s Alpine playground.  It was also home to a more recent German megalomaniac, Adolph Hitler.  This is where he wrote 'Mein Kampf'.  His most famous house was nicknamed the Eagles Nest because it sits atop a nearby mountain.  Being so high a tour would be worthless on overcast days.

After leaving the Autobahn and winding through Berchtesgaden, we climb uphill to Obersalzburg. After parking we have to take a bus up to the Eagles Nest and for good reason. The next road up is a one lane scary cliff-hugging path.  Aimee closes her eyes the whole way. Once we reach the top we aren't there yet. Down a long refreshingly cool tunnel, we find a vintage elevator that then sweeps us the final leg to the mountain top hideaway.  From this vantage point the views are phenomenal of the valley far below. Unfortunately the house has been converted into a restaurant.  I recognize the dining room from movies, but otherwise the whole experience is kind of a letdown.  Surprising since this is another top Bavarian tourist attraction. I learned Hitler didn't like it either. Rumor has it he was scared of heights and only visited it a few times.

From Obersalzburg, we descend to the valley floor on the opposite side crossing into Austria, and finding our farmhouse inn on the outskirts of Salzburg.  After a full day of hectic country driving, I am ready for a beer.  Luckily we found a great outdoor restaurant just a few doors away.