We slept like logs and wake up fully refreshed and ready for our big driving adventure today as we head to the Southern end of Bavaria and cross over into the Austrian Alps.  It is actually a fairly decent day today, cloudy and cold, but no rain, which allows us to walk the 20 minutes to Europcar to pick up our ride to the south. 

Car handled, we head out into Munich traffic, only getting turned around once as we came out of the parking garage when Google Maps wouldn’t connect right away.  A couple of quick turns later and we were on our way, easily making it out of the city and onto the Autobahn in no time.  The 90 minute drive is relatively easy and uneventful – past huge deep green farm fields and out into the gorgeous snow covered Alps looming in the distance.  You just can’t get enough pictures of those incredible peaks (well, ok, I can’t). 

We pass through little Bavarian villages and mountain passes, where the rain starts to fall a bit, past mountain lakes and beautiful fall foliage, finally arriving at our destination Schloss Linderhof.

Pulling into the parking lot we immediately begin to worry as there is only 1 other car here.  Hmmmm….the information on the website was a little sketchy in terms of opening hours, but we had read it was open at 9:00am.  Obviously not so, as we find out when we walk up to the ticket office and the big sign announcing 9:30 as the opening time.  Oops.  At least there is a little café and shop right outside where we can cool our heels.  In hindsight, we actually think they weren’t open yet either, but the doors were unlocked and the sweet lady behind the counter took our coffee and grape strudel order.  As we sit sipping our hot brew, the snow and snow pellets start to fall.  Mercifully it is just a quick little shower, with the sun trying to peek out of the clouds.

Tickets purchased, we are on the 10am tour which means we have plenty of time to explore the garden area around the palace.  There are lots of trails we could hike – and would in better weather – but as there is also a large tour that has just arrived, we don’t delay and head straight to the palace for photos of the incredible façade as well as the surrounding fountains. 

The walk to the palace is pretty in and of itself, with the fall colors a contrast to the vibrant green lawns. Up the hill, in front of the relatively small, but pretty, palace we find a miniature version of all the other palace gardens – based on Versailles.  Caserta Reggia, Schloss Nymphenburg and now here – obviously a whole lot of Versailles envy going on!   Regardless, it is still absolutely gorgeous out here.  The fountains and white marble in the front of the palace with long views back are actually much more picturesque and really quite cozy compared to Nymphenburg and especially Caserta.  Even though quite ornate, they are still more intimate, so to speak, than the others.

We bide our time wandering around to the back of the Palace where there is a colorful flower garden that ends at a huge Neptune statue at the bottom of what would be cascading waters – if the fountains were working (obviously under construction or repair at the moment). 

More people are arriving up here, making us take up position in our 10am tour line early – even though the docent/guard guy keeps telling us we don’t have to line up yet.  As we stand waiting to be admitted in, we get to listen and watch the tour guide try to corral her group and get them into the palace, as they obviously have a 9:45a tour.  There’s always got to be the laggers!  And these are priceless.  One guy asks the guide if she ran up here – come on dude!  You had more than 15 minutes to walk a short distance!  Get with the program.  Two others are lolly gagging around the front – ignoring the guide as she is trying to call them over.  Yet another exclaims to her, “this is just like the Biltmore!”  Um….in what planet????  LOL. It’s gorgeous and all that, but it is teeny-tiny and hardly Biltmore-like.  We try not to giggle, and when he is finally inside, we tell the guide to look up the Biltmore Estate and explain to her the history and differences.  She’s appreciative and gets her phone out to search as we stand there. 

A few minutes later, we are escorted into the entrance hall vestibule with the golden rays of sunlight surrounding a head and cherubs on the ceiling and a stone statue of Louis XIV of France on his horse.  Photographs aren’t allowed inside (oops – I took these before the guide told us that), so the tour through the 10 rooms upstairs will just live in our memory (and the book we actually bought in the gift shop so we could truly remember what we saw!).  The synopsis is that this castle is the only one that was completed in Ludwig’s lifetime.  It is small, built for only 1 person, Ludwig, who lived out his final days here in an opulent medieval fantasy world. He essentially went mad after losing parts of his territory after the war with Prussia, retreating to Linderhof to only dream of being a “real” king, not just a “constitutional monarch.”

He certainly surrounded himself with beauty and gold! Every room is filled with carved Rococo covered in gold leaf, 3-D ceiling paintings, with legs sticking out of the frames, a hall of mirrors with hundreds of porcelain vases – just one incredible room after another.  It is truly a cornucopia of gold leaf!  Incredibly gorgeous and so interesting.  After the tour, the weather started looking a little bleak and rainy, so instead of walking through the grounds (and seeing the famed Grotto that everyone talks about), we head out to Austria to explore the Ehrenburg ruins.