Our last day in Germany was a day of site seeing. We traveled to Prien, which is the location of another one of King Ludwig II's palaces. The Schloss Herrenchiemsee, which was modeled after the famous Louis XIV palace at Versailles, is located on an island in the middle of Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake. The Palace was never completed because King Ludwig ran out of money and died shortly after he was declared mentally insane.

The palace is grand to say the least. It was Ludwig's largest and most expensive palace containing 70 rooms, only 20 of which were completed. The first foundation stone was laid in 1878, which was around the same time the first skyscraper was standing in Chicago, and the first automobile was driven on German roads. It took approximately 30,000 workers to build (the parts that were completed) and materials had to be brought to the island during the winter months over the frozen ice.

Ludwig II had a fascination with King Louis XIV of France, and he (who's name is the German equivalent of Louis) was determined to established that he, too, possessed the absolute power of his namesake, the "Sun King." How did he do that? He built a palace, which was duplicated in every way of Louis XIV's palace, except bigger. He intended it to be a monument to the absolute monarchy. All the paintings, decorations, floor plans were exact copies of those at Versailles.

Not a single item in the palace reflects Bavarian history. The building was lit at night with over 6000 candles. The textiles were all hand embroidered and all the wood was hand carved. Above every bed and in many of the rooms were osteridge plumes (a symbol of royalty) and crowns (a symbol of absolute authority). All the portraits in the building are of King Louis XIV instead of King Ludwig II, because having Ludwig's portraits around would have destroyed the illusion that this palace was Versailles. There are 15 clocks in the palace, but one in particular in the conference room is of interest. Every hour it chimes like a cuckoo clock, but instead of a bird coming out, King Louis XIV comes out from behind closed doors. Then, on the last bell of the hour, a crown is lowered onto his head.

Ludwig II was rather eccentric and a recluse. He preferred to sleep during the day and wonder at night, so in his bedroom are very heavy curtains which block out all of the sunlight and a large blue globe, that when illuminated by 3 candles gave the illusion of a night sky. He was also so afraid to have people see him eating, (because, apparently, his teeth were black) that he had a special table, known as the magic table, made. He would place an order from the menu, which was painted in murals around his morning eating room (pig, fish, chicken, beef…) and then the table would be lowered into the kitchen, where the servants would set it and then send it back up to his room. He never saw a servant. Of course, he never got to use the table either, because the kitchen was never completed. Not the best planing.

His bath tub took 15,000 gallons to fill, has a spiral staircase descending into it. Of course, Ludwig II only spent a total of 10 days in this palace, and he received no visitors during that time. Ludwig was declaired mentally insaine by doctors who never examined him, and then died 3 days later mysteriously. He and his doctor were found in the water in the middle of the night. Ludwig was and excellent swimmer. Hmmm.

Ludwig's family inherited tremendous debt, so 3 weeks after his death there was an auction to sell off his possessions - of which it is said that the Vanderbuilt's bought several truck loads. 6 weeks after his death, the 3 palaces he had built were opened to the public for tours to try and recover some of the money. Now they have 70,000 visitors a year in Schloss Herrenchiemsee alone.

We, after having seen 3 castles that Ludwig II was involved with, reserved judgment on his mental facilities until now. The man was a lunatic. If you see this place, you will know, beyond a shadow of a doubt the cuckoo was a singing, but now one was home. We ate lunch at a nice little pub that served Italian food and ice cream. It was the German/Italian equivilant to Happy Joe's, except not quite as good. The beer wasn't that great either. See the reviews.

Another country with stairs
We headed on to Austria next to see Salzburg. Some history for those of us who don't know… Austira's early history was an unstable one until 799 AD when Charlemagne made it his eastern front. In 962 AD, Austria became a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The capital was established in Melk. Between 962 and 1246 the country was ruled by Leopold of Babenberg and his descendants. In 1246, the last male heir to the throne died and thus began a 27 year struggle for the throne. Rudolph of Habsburg was crowned Duke of Austria and his family reigned for 625 years. By 1519 Austria was part of one of the greatest empires in the world, which included Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Latin America (except Brazil), Naples, Sardinia, Sicily and some of Eastern France.

In 1521, King Charles V divided his empire with his brother, Ferdinand, who received the Austrian lands.

In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was replaced with the Empire of Austria. When the maps were re-drawn in 1815, the Habsburgs (remember them, the brothers) ruled an empire which included Germans, Romanians, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles, Italians, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. Revolution brought about the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire and the creation of the dual monarchy of Austria and Hungry in 1867.

On June 28, 1914 the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, which escalated the world into World War I. After 2 world wars and many occupations, the Austrian Republic was restored to what it is today.

When in Austria it is important to shop. Good purchases include Leather goods, wooden crafts, porcelain, knitwear, copper and iron work. No, we didn't get much of a chance to shop. Or arrival was conveniently timed to coincide with the closing of most of the shops. Believed to be a conspiracy by the men to prevent the woman from shopping. Alas, it worked.

We did get to see several of the sites including Festung Hohensalzburg, which is a giant fortress atop a hill. (Yes, that does imply more steps.) Unfortunately, there was a charge for every little part of the castle, so we didn't collect much history about the place. We did, however get a splendid view. We also saw the Mirabell Gardens. This place didn't offer guided tours that we could find, so we made it up as we went along. Several statues grace the border of the gardens. Such classics as "Collecting fruit to make a hat," and "This fig leaf chafes.

I just wanted to point that out," were particularly interesting.
Along the river bank, standing on a bridge, there was a mime. We don't get much opportunity to see mimes in Iowa. He was just standing there. People were leaving him money for standing there. He even moved a little, we saw it. We're in the wrong business.

Tomorrow we head for the Czech Republic - leaving on a 6 am train. If we get up. We would like to add here, that even though we made every effort to hear a "polka" band, including a trip into the famed Hofbrauhaus (where they say music plays round the clock), we got through Switzerland, Germany and Austria without hearing a single note. Austria, however did have the "mad bell ringer" who rang the town bell for about 50 minutes out of every hour. Our disappointment is genuine - or at least Doug's is.

Things we learned from Germany
1. If it's over 50 feet tall, it has a bell in it
2. If there's a bell, it will ring at least 5 times a day.
3. Beer is still cheaper than water.
4. The whole damn country is under construction. Either that or they wrapped up all the major attractions in construction netting because they knew we were coming. No, we didn't unwrap any of them.
5. They dress in the costumes, but the band never plays.
6. Gerenglish is spoken here.