Europe: Day 8, May 8, Germany & Austria

After spending the night in the quaint little village of Fulpnes near Innsbruck, Austria, we visited castles built by an eccentric Bavarian or Austrian king- type guy who liked his solitude.  His name was Ludwig the second.  He built huge castles and then didn't let people visit.  He had lots of servants but did not want to see them. They had to disappear whenever he came where they were.  In one palace, his cooks/meals preparers fixed the meals and set the table in the basement, them the entire table went up through a hole in the floor to his dining room. MIT was on some kind of elevator system. The ostentatiousness is quite disturbing to us.  This one particular palace was modeled on Versailles, only on a smaller scale. The names of the castles were Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau and Linderhof. The guy was named Ludwig II or some such thing. We actually went back into Germany to see them. The castles are fascinating but over-done.

One of his castles is the one Disney used as a model for their Cinderella castle.  It was very pretty.  We didn't go into it.  

Also up the hill he had a cave built complete with a heated pool. 

It was called "The Venus grotto".

We visited Oberammergau, a charming village in Germany.  Ate lunch, gelato and mailed post cards to the kids. Oberammergau is the site of the famous passion play performed every ten years. There are 5000 people in the town. 3000 of them participate in the play. Their employers are required to give them time off for the production. 

In the evening we attended a Tyrolean show with local entertainers with local instruments. It included folk dancing, singing, several instruments and such. Not something I'd want to see every day, but quite interesting. Lots of drinking by much of the crowd. I think they enjoyed it more than those of us who were sober.