Day 3 of our trip to Germany was an excursion out to the country to visit two castles and the town of Oberammergau. We took about an 90 minute bus ride out to the country and the edge of the alps to get to the castles. Our guide told us that Austria was a mere miles away on the other side of the mountains.
Our first castle was Castle Linderhof. It was the hunting lodge of King Ludwig II. He was a reclusive "mad" king and lived in this palace in almost complete solitude. The castle was not huge, at least by palace standards, but it was incredibly ornate, decorated in a french style known as Rocco in Germany. Unfortunately photos of the interior were not allowed.
The second stop on the trip was to the town of Oberammergau. There wasn't anything here that really was that impressive, but it was a nice little country town. There seemed to be a whole bunch of these small towns in the countryside.
The third and final stop on our tour took us to castle Neuschwanstein. This is perhaps the most famous castle in Germany and is known as the "Disney" castle as the castle in Disney land was modeled after it. The castle was also building by Ludwig II, but it was not completed or fully furnished before his mysterious death. The castle is only 1/3 complete and only one of the floors is decorated. During World War II the Nazi's stored art in the building to keep it from being bombed by allied forces.
The yellow castle you see in the photo is that of King Ludwig II's mother and she lived just below castle Neuschwanstein. Both castles are surrounding by five lakes, one of which you can see in our photos. It was very pretty.
We finished off the day back in Munich for some dinner. A nice summer salad and a "chef's selection" for our entree.