Day 11 – July 7: A Castle on an Island in a Lake in Germany

Today began our two-day drive into Germany, south of Munich.  Jim and I took the metro to the train

station to pick up our rental car while the girls exercised, ate, and packed.  We were pleasantly surprised by what’s become of the VW Passat Wagon since our 1998 version, which is barely holding it together at home.  We’ve just recently been car shopping at home so we know the variety of extras available – and this rental car seems to have them all…the most handy of which turned out to be the built-in GPS as we worked our way through Vienna to get back to the hotel to pick up the girls.

I’ve always pictured (but not yet seen) huge castles on hills when thinking about the German countryside, so I was intrigued when I read about a castle on an island in a lake.  As we drove the nearly four hours through Austria and into Germany, I learned the castle we were headed to wasn’t even mentioned in our Germany guidebook and started to wonder if I had made a mistake.  After stopping for lunch at the most gourmet rest stop cafeteria-style restaurant I’ve ever seen, we pulled into Prien am Chiemsee on the western shore of the lake of Chiemsee (the largest lake in Bavaria) and drove through the super cute town in search of tourist information and the way to the boat dock.  The boat ride over to the island was beautiful and, thankfully, calm and short.  I do love a mountain lake.

 

Tickets to tour the castle are sold near the boat dock but then you have to take a 20-minute wooded walk that provides no views of the castle…until you turn the corner and the entire Herrenchiemsee comes into view at once!  Breathtaking!

Our tour of the Royal Palace of Herrenchiemsee was really interesting.  It is one of the three palaces built by Ludwig II and it is an homage to Louis XIV, the Sun King, who had been dead 100 years before Ludwig started building.  

Though his other two palaces are ones I’d heard of before, this one is actually larger and more expensive than the other two combined.  Ludwig wanted his own Versailles – literally – this palace started out as an exact replica, down to the paintings on the walls.  Ludwig however ran out of money so what is here now is just the central section of Versailles without the wings on either side.  Also, only about 30% (20 of the 70 rooms) are complete.  It is hard to describe and no pictures were allowed inside, but it was definitely worth the visit.  The bedroom that he slept in a total of 10 nights had a hidden stairwell down to his changing room, the dining table that he sat at alone had a table that descended via an elevator system so it could be set below and lifted up, and his bath tub the size of a pool was used only once.  Construction completely stopped when Ludwig died suddenly (and mysteriously) at 40 years old.  It is cool to go into the uncompleted section and see how rooms that are so lavishly done in marble or gold start off as rooms of plain brick. 

We walked back towards the boat launch side of the island and toured the Augustinian Monastery which has been converted into a museum featuring artwork by Julius Exter, “an important pioneer of modern art in Munich at the end of the 19^th century.”  This monastery also served as the home of Ludwig II while the castle was being built and was where the German Constitution was written in 1948. 

We ferried back to our car and drove to the neighboring Bernau am Chiemsee to our wonderfully quaint hotel in what seems to be a sort of health resort town.  We looked into two Bavarian restaurants before ending up again at a pizzeria.  The closer we get to Italy the more natural the amount of pizza we are eating seems! 

This is the only night we have two separate rooms.  The girls are now in their room watching Walter Mitty (since they love the soundtrack and have wanted to see the movie for quite a while).  Jim and I are watching Germany and France in the semi-final.  If Germany wins this game, we might have to go celebrate with the locals.  This seems the perfect locale for Julia to wake up tomorrow 18 years old!