In honor of our last day of family vacation in Germany, we decided some more sightseeing was in order 🙂
First stop: Linderhof Palace!
Remember crazy King Ludwig II from my Neuschwanstein Castle post? Well, this palace was his, too! He spent most of his time here, in fact. It’s the smallest of his three castles, but the only one that he lived to see completed.
Like Neuschwanstein, Linderhof Palace is incredibly beautiful… much smaller and more modest from the outside, but INSANELY ornate and decorated on the inside.
These gold flowers are on the front door — beautiful!
I hear this castle is absolutely amazing in the summer due to the beautiful gardens.
There’s also a lake nearby (closed in the winter) where King Ludwig used to ride around in swan boats and listen to music from Wagner, his favorite composer. Sweet life, huh?
More shots of the outside of the castle:
I was bummed no pictures were allowed inside — it was insane, very Rococo (the very ornate French style) with lots of gold everywhere. There was also a really cool room with infinity mirrors — mirrors set up so that they bounced off each other and made it look like the room went on forever!
A pretty little monastery near the castle:
It was a beautiful sunny day — but VERY cold!
After the castle, we warmed up with a delicious lunch — I had this beautiful salad:
And some goulash soup! This is basically a thick beef and veggie soup — very tasty.
Plus a roll, for dipping 🙂
I seriously think I’ve eaten more red meat in the past week and a half than I did in all of 2010 combined.
Our beautiful view during lunch:
Bellies full, we headed off to our final tourist destination: Ettal Abbey, a beautiful Benedictine monastery in the village of Ettal (about 20 to 30 minutes from Garmisch).
I’m not sure how, but it was even more frigid inside than outside! Must have been all that stone.
I looked around and saw no signs prohibiting cameras, so I got some beautiful shots of the inside for you all (no flash — don’t want to damage the beautiful paintings, like this one on the ceiling):
Love this shot of the chandelier from below:
We’re off to our final dinner here in Germany as a family — sad! Tomorrow morning, as I mentioned, we are all packing up and leaving — my parent’s vacations are over, but my brother and I will be continuing on to another country by train together for a few more days adventure — stay tuned to see where we end up! 🙂
I have a great guest recipe post lined up for tomorrow since I’ll be traveling most of the day — enjoy!
