Bavaria

For the 4-day Ascension holiday weekend, Emilie and I decided to do a road trip through the Bavaria region of southern Germany.

Our first stop was Füssen, a small town near the Austrian border that began as a settlement during Roman times. And while Füssen is no doubt a very nice town in its own right, we had actually chosen it due to its proximity to a specific sight that would serve as our first visit of the trip: the Neuschwanstein castle.

The castle was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria during the 19th century and was to serve as both a personal retreat and a form of homage to the composer Richard Wagner. Also of note, it later served as the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle.

Our visit included a castle tour that touched upon the life of Ludwig II, the history of the castle itself, as well as the stories behind the many rooms that we passed through. It was very interesting (particularly the mysterious circumstances surrounding Ludwig's death), though I'd have to say that my favorite part of the visit ultimately turned out to be the castle's surroundings. As evidenced by the picture below, the views that the castle's location afforded were absolutely stunning.

After finishing up our visit at Neuschwanstein, we decided to take a bit of a detour on the way to our next stop and drove across the border to Austria. The drive provided beautiful alpine views and we were surprised to see a lot of snow even at relatively low elevations. Apparently it had been very cold in recent days with a fair amount of new snow.

As we returned to Germany we passed through the resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, site of the 1936 Winter Olymplics. Shortly thereafter we arrived in Ettal, which is known for its Benedictine monastery that dates back to the middle ages. The current monastery, pictured below, was constructed during the mid-18th century.

Next we headed to another of King Ludwig II's Bavarian retreats -- Linderhof Palace. It was inspired by Versailles (Louis XIV was an idol for Ludwig), with many of its features based on the French palace (albeit on a much smaller scale).

Like Neuschwanstein castle, Linderhof is surrounded by beautiful scenery. Ludwig apparently chose the location due to his fond memories of hunting with his father in the area during his youth.

After Linderhof, we stopped in a small town called Oberammergau to walk around for a bit. The town is known in part for its lüftlmalerei -- frescoes on the walls of buildings and homes that depict traditional Bavarian culture, religious themes and fairy tales. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see some examples on the building.

For our final stop of the day, we visited the Pilgrimage Church of Wies. It was built in the mid-18th century to house a wooden figure of Christ on which real tears were seen in 1738 and ultimately deemed a miracle (hence the attraction for religious pilgrims).

The most impressive part of the church was definitely its interior, with detailed frescoes and sculptures. The picture below probably doesn't do the church justice, but at least it offers a glimpse of what we saw inside.