Linderhof....into the Alps

We got back on the bus at 11:45 and headed north to Linderhoff and Oberammergau. Not long after we got on the motorway we saw snow!!!  It was a beautiful drive up with snow covered trees and fields.  Unfortunately you don't always get the best pictures from the inside of a bus, but at least you can get a sense of it.  

Our first stop was the Linderhoff palace of mad King Ludwig II.  He was not much for politics or wars, but he loved music and art and building palaces.  This is the only palace he finished in his lifetime and he spent the last 8 years of his life as a recluse here.  It's is a small palace and he lived solely on the second floor with just 7 servants.  His dining room table was set in the servants quarters and they a pulley system was used to bring the table to the second floor, so that he didn't have to see his servants.  It was beautiful and heavily ornate inside, but no photography was allowed.  The king was influenced by Louis XV and Versailles.  The upper floor consists of a music room, a small audience chamber, the dining a room, Kings bedroom with a huge bed (he was 6'2" and so the bed was made specially for him), and a dressing room.  With the exception of the bedroom, the rooms were all quite small.

To get to the palace was a 10 minute walk on a snow lined path.  I was so afraid of falling, but managed to stay upright.  

The road to the palace

The walk to the palace

The palace itself

The front door

The garden, which is supposed to be beautiful in the summer

From there it was time to walk back, do a little souvenir shopping and then hop on the bus for a trip to Oberammergau, where the town puts on a passion play every 10 years from May to October.  It's a town of 5,000 and over half a million people come to see the play from all over the world. It will next be done in 2020.

For today it was just an opportunity to see the theater and walk around the town (and do some shopping, of course).  There is a tradition of doing paintings on the outside of homes in Bavaria, and we got to see a special one, Pilate's house

The town was lovely, especially with the snow on the ground

That is all for the day.  By the time we got back it was 6:45.  We grabbed a sandwich at subway and headed to our room.  We have to have our bags outside the door at 7:15, then it's breakfast and departure of Nuremberg at 8:15.  More fun ahead!