Linderhof & the Alps

June 10^th, 2012

I woke up this morning in a comfy bed in a beautiful hotel.  That wasn’t even the best part…they had fried eggs with breakfast =D  Lee & I got there a little later than Kelly & Andrea so they had already gotten a table & an egg.  You know it’s the little things in life that can turn a day around.  After that yummy breakfast it was on the road again.

First stop on our list was Linderhof Palace.  It was one of the three castles Ludwig II built while in office.  We saw one of his castles yesterday as well as that of his parents.  I have also seen Herrenchiemsee which is on the lake Chiemsee.  I was excited to complete my list of his three castles.  It is by far my favorite.  The land is absolutely beautiful &; the palace doesn’t disappoint either.  We got our tickets for the tour & got in line.  The inside was breath taking.  Now it’s not something I would want to live in, mainly because I wouldn’t want to clean it, but Ludwig did an excellent job with this place.  He not only had a main house but also several other properties on the land.  One sight to see was his grotto which he had built.  After seeing all three of his castles, I can understand why he received the title, “The Fairy Tale King”.  All of his castles are based on Wagnerian operas or French palaces.  He definitely had a creative & extravagant mind.  The tour was extremely interesting & then we took some time to walk the grounds.  WOW!!!

Should I write a check or do a 30 year loan?

Art shot!

I'm too sweet...don't want to melt so I'm doubley protected

Paying our respects to King Lee

Inside one of the additional buildings

One of the many buildings on the grounds

All hail the King

I'm really tempted to go running through the field  of flowers

Grotto

He's got the whole world in his hand

The final stop on our list for the day was Bregenz, Austria on Lake Constance.  From our hotel it’s a long, CURVY, beautiful drive through the Alps.  Now when I say CURVY, I mean CURVY.  That meant that Raegan was not feeling well for 99.9% of the drive.  I heard the scenery was beautiful but I chose to keep my eyes closed & focus on not throwing up that yummy egg I had for breakfast.  We stopped a couple of times along the way which was nice.  We even got to play in the snow…yup the snow in June!  It was fun!

Yay!  We finally made it to our final destination; Ibis Hotel in Bregenz.  Raegan lay out in the parking lot for a few minutes until her head stopped spinning.  Luckily it didn’t take too long.  We all got checked in & took a few minutes to rest before heading into town.  Bregenz is known for their stage on the water.  They perform a play, musical, opera, or whatever for two years.  The stage, as you can see from the pictures below, is literally built over the lake.  This is why they perform the same thing for two years.  It’s an amazing sight & would love to come back when they’re performing.  The season runs July & August so we were a little too early.  Oh well…guess I’ll have to come back ;)  We saw the stage & then walked along the water before deciding we were all pretty hungry.  There was a nice restaurant not too far from where we were & it was on the water.  The food was, once again, REALLY good.  Kelly decided to order what I ordered, grill platter, to avoid any bad ordering decisions.  Lee opted for some Schnitzel while Andrea got a fish dish.  The fish she had came from the lake.  It was something I was considering but after tasting it (which was good), I’m glad I didn’t get the entire dish.  While enjoying our dinner, we were kind of discussing our plans for the remainder of the trip which got quite entertaining.  I mentioned to Andrea that we should go to the Tapas restaurant in Baden-Baden.  There was a little misunderstanding because she thought I said Topless which is something totally different.  After that little misunderstanding, Lee had a light bulb moment.  We hit the road tomorrow for Zürich, Switzerland to spend the night with Andrea’s friend Uli.  Now he was under the impression that we were heading to Uli, Switzerland.  As we were sitting at dinner, it clicked.  That’s why he couldn’t find it on the map.  Needless to say, we had several laughs over dinner.  Well, we laugh on a regular basis so that’s not unusual.  After dinner, we walked through the city center on our way back to the hotel for some sleep.

 
 
 

We’re on the road again tomorrow where Lee will be heading to Uli, Switzerland…good luck finding that on the map…& the rest of the group will be going to Zürich, Switzerland.