Linderhoff

The past week has been a blur. We've done and seen so much! We've been having an amazing time! We left my mom's on June 23 to take the kids to Legoland. On the way, it just started storming and raining, so we decided to put off Legoland until the following week and we headed to Garmisch, a small skiing community in the middle of the Alps. Edelweiss Military Resort is in this town, so it was great being next to a PX and Commissary. We stayed in a small apartment for the few days we were there, and I was grateful we could have homemade dinners at home as opposed to eating out every night. We did eat at some restaurants, but it was nice to just be able to relax for and after dinner, especially with all the things we did while there. The first day (June 24th) we went to Linderhoff, a palace built by Ludwig II. He was one of the last kings of Bavaria, and met an untimely death. He was considered insane because of is preference for solitude, love of Wagner's Operas, and eccentricities for building palaces. They found him drowned in a lake at the age of 40. Very sad. Linderfhoff was one of the palaces he built, along with Neuschwanstein and Herrenchimesee. We saw two of the three (Linder and Neusch) and also visited his childhood home, Hohenschwangau.

The following pictures are of Linderhoff: Well, this one isn't Linderhoff, but it is the farm I want Dan to buy me when we are ready to retire :-)
This is a picture of the front of Linderhoff. The gardens and buildings were just amazing to see. On the property were all of these small houses for tea and parties and escape. Below is a picture of the Moroccan Building on the property. I would post pictures of the inside, but flashes were not allowed and the pictures were to blurry to see.

This is the Hunting Lodge Ludwig had built in this property. Inside was the scene to one of Wagner opera's and there was a giant tree built in the middle of the lodge. Below is the cave on the property. It was created as a sort of opera house. Ludwig would go to the cave and have Wagner's operas played while he had servants row him around on the enclosed lake. Ludwig was a man of fantasy and it was his other palace, Neuschwantstein, that Walt Disney had his castle modeled after. Disney thought that Ludwig's creation was full of such wonder, fantasy and amazement, he wanted the castle to represent his creations as well.

Ludwig grew up in a home that was painted with murals that romanticized the legends of old: Percival, Triston and Isolde, Lohengrin, and Tannhauser. Being surrounded by these stories and then to be living in the time the Wagner created his famous opera's about these stories, would certainly create in one a love for the time when heroes were larger than life. I can see how one could allow themselves into that world of fantasy and not be able to leave it. I'll post more pictures of the other palaces, hopefully, later today.