Castle Linderhof

Day 2 of our honeymoon, we woke up to our first european breakfast from the hotel and we were simply amazed by how well kept the hotel's dining area was.

Wall attached seats and wonderful lighting

Breakfast was wonderful with sponge cake, bread, yogurt, ham and even scrambled eggs! We enjoyed the food thoroughly and fortunately we enjoyed it cos it was the best breakfast we were going to get for the rest of the trip :)

In memory of the best honeymoon breakfast

We went on to castle Linderhof after our departure from Schwangau. Well, it was another of King Ludwig's 2 castle and once again Richard Wagner influenced part of the design. The exterior of the castle was a huge garden, so it took like 10mins of walking the garden before we reached the entrance. And there to greet us was this pond with a golden sculpture in the middle (not sure if it is pure gold though)

Front view of castle

We were walking around the castle perimeter and snapping pictures, we came across this interesting looking statue that turned out quite sinister after we looked at the picture again.
The whole statue was corroded leaving the shiny, glittering dagger.. And god knew why we decided to have Dear posing under her.

Sinister statue... Hmmm why were we attracted to it.

We were happily snapping pictures when the sound of water splashes brought our attention back to the pond...

Strong fountain jet (technology in 1800s?)

The fountain will supposedly go off every hour. It could have reached the 4th-5th storey of a HDB flat. Pretty amazing given the innocent looking sculpture. Like the other castles, tour of the castle was guided and 'no photos allowed inside please'. And once again the whole place was build with grandeur, art and $$$. Oh didn't i say there should be an opera writer's association to the castle? Yup, this time, it was outside the castle and it is in the form of a man made cave:

The King will sit in the swan boat and move around the small river to look at the performance in the cave-themed stage.

The cave was constructed as this Richard guy wrote a play that had a scene in a cave, so the King just took the idea and built this. The cave was behind the castle (up this hill you see below) and to get to the stage, one has to walk about 2-3mins along the passageway of the cave, so it's pretty much hidden... Guess it adds to the King's pleasure

Hill behind the castle

Castles were one of our 'must go' in this Europe trip and i really have to thank Dear for suggesting to include Germany in this trip. The castles by Ludwig were really extraordinary and i enjoyed driving on the autobahn and the country roads.

We initially planned for a Munich tour on Day 2 after Linderhof but we arrived pretty late and met with Wansing for dinner in instead. Once again, i need to thank Dear for her foresight and persuasion as we decided to push off the Rhinefall visit in Switzerland and go for a city tour of Munich on Day 3 instead.

City tour of Munich was great as most attractions i.e. churches and town hall were free. Wurst (sausage) in Munich was splendid and cheap (1.90E - cannot find this price anywhere else liao). The city is bustling with modern shopping centers interspersed with buildings of historical values. I must say it was the city tour i most enjoyed.

Old town hall in Munich