Munich Weekend Part 2

In which I go to Linderhof

I spent a good 80% of Friday at Linderhof and traveling to and from it. It's a healthy 2 and a half hours from Munich, but I really wanted to go. I was not disappointed. My favorite Bavarian king Ludwig II built it as a sort of mountain retreat. A royal hunting lodge was already here when Ludwig started making plans to expand it. He wanted to build his Versailles here, but the grounds are too hilly for the type of gardens he wanted and the space just wasn't big enough. Hence the relocation of that project to Herrenchiemsee. This castle (along with accompanying buidings) is the smallest, the most quickly built, and the only one he finished. He spent most of the last 8 years of his life here. It was a very special place for him and he never had visitors there. He did have rooms designed for Sophie's use for when they got married, but as you know that didn't really work out.

It's a stunning palace. Gold everything, tapestries everywhere...luxurious is the key word for every inch of the place. One tapestry of the Bavarian coat of arms uses a special technique with hundreds of stitches woven per square centimeter. It took a craftsman 4 years to hand stitch/weave/make the whole thing. Ludwig was also apparently so shy in his later years even around his servants that he had a "magic table" installed in his dining room. It could be lowered by means of a hand-cranked elevator to the servants' area below where the table would be set and loaded with food before being raised back up. Magic!

The grounds are especially worth a going-over. There's the "grotto": an artificial cave with a swan boat floating in a man-made "underground lake", with an awesome lighting system. Then there's the Moorish and Moroccan houses, which are small cottages done up in the respective styles. He has a hunting lodge that I'm pretty sure was decorated by Gaston, and a rustic little lakeside chapel. My favorite thing about this castle is how personal it felt. Ludwig (and his servants) was the only one to ever live here, or come here even. This wasn't for show or impressing visiting royalty or even hosting operas; it was just for him.

After getting back to Munich I did a little more sightseeing. I had dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. It's certainly an experience, but I didn't like it. I suppose that's not surprising. A person who doesn't like beer is probably not likely to enjoy a beer hall. It was loud, overcrowded, and the service was awful. My kaes spaetzle (German mac n cheese) was good though. I went and saw the Olympic Park which I loved. I'm a big fan of the Olympics, and a life goal of mine is to go someday. I also got off the subway to take a picture of their soccer arena, but it wasn't very exciting.

And that was the end of day 2.