The Castles of Mad king Ludwig (Part 2)
After a full day of rain we woke to find the clouds had lifted and there was a promise of the sun returning. This was sufficient to make a short detour before leaving the Berchtesgaden National park to revisit Königssee, a deep natural lake about three miles from Berchtesgaden. I visited Königssee a couple of years ago, and on that occasion took the last boat trip of the day on the understanding I could only go part way up the lake. It was nearly a very embarrassing boat trip. I was with a group of people from the Rockspring Community Choir from Ludlow. On reaching the half way point and thinking the boat wouldn't go any further I was told there was time to get off the boat to take photos - which I did. Other members of the group stayed aboard. When I got back to the jetty less than 5 minutes later the boat had vanished! Fortunately another boat was headed back and blushes were spared - as I was driving and had the keys to the car.
This time no chances were taken. We stayed on terra firma, walked along a hiking trail and were rewarded by early morning views of the mist lifting off the lake. Königssee looked beautiful, green and blue waters surrounded by sheer mountain walls, tree clad, falling almost vertically to the water.
After an hour we continued our travels driving through wonderful alpine scenery, made all the more dramatic as the cloud started to break up.
From Berchtesgaden it was a relatively short drive north to Chiemsee and we were enjoying sunshine again. By late morning we'd parked up and had a picnic overlooking Chiemsee from the south western shore. Chiemsee is large. They describe it as Bavaria's sea and from our picnic spot we could see hundreds of sailing boats out on the waters, together with canoeists, wind surfers and lots of coots near the shore diving periodically for food.
Its shore length is almost 40 miles all told and it is dotted with islands. We planned to visit its largest island, Herreninsel. As we walked along the shoreline various options to get to the island presented themselves including electric boat hire which seemed to have our name on it...
We opted however for the more conventional 25 minute ferry ride across the water.
Herreninsel is home to another of Ludwig II's castles, very different in character to Neuschwanstein but sharing the same over the top, throw everything at it and then some more, approach to interior design. I may have mentioned in an earlier piece that Ludwig idolised Louis XIV of France and his rule as an absolute monarch from the palace of Versailles, around 200 years before Ludwig.
Herrenchiemsee New Palace was Ludwig's attempt to create a replica of Versailles. He bought the island in 1873 and work began in 1878. When Ludwig died in 1886 the 'Bavarian Versailles' was still not complete. We booked a guided tour to see inside. As with our previous tour at Neuschwanstein, interior photography was prohibited, but before we went inside I took photos from the outside. Grand fountains and formal gardens were replicas of those at Versailles.
Inside the interiors were even more ornate than those we had seen at Neuschwanstein. The Great Hall of Mirrors is even longer than that at Versailles even though the building is substantially smaller.
The photos from our leaflet give a sense of the over the top approach that Ludwig commissioned. Every room was filled with ornate decoration. gold leaf was used extensively.
Our ticket for Herrenchiemsee New Palace also included entrance to an excellent museum about Ludwig II's life and entrance to an Augustinian monastery with a wonderful baroque room and an art gallery with an extensive collection of paintings by the German artist, Julius Exter.
It had been a really enjoyable afternoon on Herreninsel and we had a slow ferry boat ride back to the shore in the late afternoon sun.
It was only a short drive of 10 minutes to our next stop: a tiny village called Frasdorf where I'd booked a room in a tradition village inn. The Goldener Pflug (Golden Plough) is a former 16th-century farmhouse. It oozed character and our room was very comfortable. We had a good evening meal outside, observing a group of local men in traditional Bavarian dress, drinking large glasses of beer.
One was cradling a hunting rifle. Beer and guns I thought...what can possibly go wrong?
We had hoped for a good night's sleep after a full exploration of Herreninsel not forgetting we'd had the early morning walk at Konigsee - but what I hadn't realised when booking our accommodation was that the Goldener Pflug was very close to the village church...and what I also didn't know was that the church bells chimed every quarter of an hour with the full set of chimes on the hour...all through the night. Coupled with agricultural vehicles starting up at around 3.30 am it is fair to say we were both a little bleary eyed the next morning and glad we'd only got one night booked. It was now time to leave the lakes and mountains of Southern Bavaria and start to head westwards, as part of the long and slow return trip home.
This time no chances were taken. We stayed on terra firma, walked along a hiking trail and were rewarded by early morning views of the mist lifting off the lake. Königssee looked beautiful, green and blue waters surrounded by sheer mountain walls, tree clad, falling almost vertically to the water.
 |
| Königssee |
After an hour we continued our travels driving through wonderful alpine scenery, made all the more dramatic as the cloud started to break up.
From Berchtesgaden it was a relatively short drive north to Chiemsee and we were enjoying sunshine again. By late morning we'd parked up and had a picnic overlooking Chiemsee from the south western shore. Chiemsee is large. They describe it as Bavaria's sea and from our picnic spot we could see hundreds of sailing boats out on the waters, together with canoeists, wind surfers and lots of coots near the shore diving periodically for food.
Its shore length is almost 40 miles all told and it is dotted with islands. We planned to visit its largest island, Herreninsel. As we walked along the shoreline various options to get to the island presented themselves including electric boat hire which seemed to have our name on it...
We opted however for the more conventional 25 minute ferry ride across the water.
 |
| The non-electric ferry |
Herreninsel is home to another of Ludwig II's castles, very different in character to Neuschwanstein but sharing the same over the top, throw everything at it and then some more, approach to interior design. I may have mentioned in an earlier piece that Ludwig idolised Louis XIV of France and his rule as an absolute monarch from the palace of Versailles, around 200 years before Ludwig.
Herrenchiemsee New Palace was Ludwig's attempt to create a replica of Versailles. He bought the island in 1873 and work began in 1878. When Ludwig died in 1886 the 'Bavarian Versailles' was still not complete. We booked a guided tour to see inside. As with our previous tour at Neuschwanstein, interior photography was prohibited, but before we went inside I took photos from the outside. Grand fountains and formal gardens were replicas of those at Versailles.
Inside the interiors were even more ornate than those we had seen at Neuschwanstein. The Great Hall of Mirrors is even longer than that at Versailles even though the building is substantially smaller.
The photos from our leaflet give a sense of the over the top approach that Ludwig commissioned. Every room was filled with ornate decoration. gold leaf was used extensively.
 |
| Interiors of Herrenchiemsee New Palace |
It had been a really enjoyable afternoon on Herreninsel and we had a slow ferry boat ride back to the shore in the late afternoon sun.
 |
| Mrs B on board the Chiemsee ferry. |
It was only a short drive of 10 minutes to our next stop: a tiny village called Frasdorf where I'd booked a room in a tradition village inn. The Goldener Pflug (Golden Plough) is a former 16th-century farmhouse. It oozed character and our room was very comfortable. We had a good evening meal outside, observing a group of local men in traditional Bavarian dress, drinking large glasses of beer.
One was cradling a hunting rifle. Beer and guns I thought...what can possibly go wrong?
 |
| The locals...enjoying a beer or three - armed but not obviously dangerous. |
We had hoped for a good night's sleep after a full exploration of Herreninsel not forgetting we'd had the early morning walk at Konigsee - but what I hadn't realised when booking our accommodation was that the Goldener Pflug was very close to the village church...and what I also didn't know was that the church bells chimed every quarter of an hour with the full set of chimes on the hour...all through the night. Coupled with agricultural vehicles starting up at around 3.30 am it is fair to say we were both a little bleary eyed the next morning and glad we'd only got one night booked. It was now time to leave the lakes and mountains of Southern Bavaria and start to head westwards, as part of the long and slow return trip home.
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