The Little Versailles

After the slight disappointment of not being able to get in to the Neuschwanstein, today we decided to head off earlier hopefully to beat the traffic. We were heading to a castle built on an island on a lake, built by the same king who built the Neuschwanstein. He was a little bit mad and built 3 really expensive castles in the 1800s and when it was discovered he had plans for more, it was apparently decided that the world would be better off without him around. He was ‘found’ dead supposedly of drowning, but since he was found in 1m of water and he was 1.91m tall, this was a little suspicious. To my mind, the big bullet sized hole in his head would have been more suspicious but the official cause of death was “accidental drowning”, or so the story goes. So, we arrived at this castle which was intended to be a tribute to the palace at Versailles in France. Since we were at the real Versailles just a week earlier, it was going to be interesting to see how similar they were. At Versailles, you enter and then you are free to wander all over the building, the gardens, take photos and generally do what you want. At the German Versailles, you can do no such thing, how dare you! There is a compulsory guided tour which lasts 25 minutes (it took over 3 hours just to walk around the chateau in Versailles) which consists of being informed “zis is a chair und zis is ein chandelier that when it has candles in it vill light up ze room”, most informative. The first piece of information we were given was that under no circumstances are photographs or filming to be done “or you vill be shot!” After being rushed through the first few rooms, always walking in a straight line or you villbe shot, we came to the ‘little’ hall of mirrors, which I think was impressive, if we could have had a look and gotten past the ropes I could say for sure. The whole 60m long room was roped off and you are not allowed to walk down it. We were, however, told that there is a very nice view from the window at the end of the hall that takes in the fountains in the gardens, but you are not permitted to see it, or you vill be shot. I actually think that the castle would be very impressive, if we were allowed to see it. I was amused that at the real Versailles photos are allowed and it is fine to see the whole building but at the Little Versailles in Germany (it is called Herrenchiemseein Bavaria by the way) the building is a bit more important so the strict no photos and no wandering policy is enforced. I was reminded of the saying, the tail wagging the dog. But in the end it was a minor nuisance and in fact the day was a good one. The gardens were quite nice and the fountains really cool, when they were on. My original thought was that they were turned off because someone took a photo of them, but it turns out they are on for 50 minutes, then off for 50 minutes and it was just me being cynical. The thing that really made the day a success was the little village we stopped in and the restaurant there. It was a traditional Bavarian place, complete with two old men playing piano accordion and guitar, wearing lederhosen and the hat with a feather in it. The deal is they play for the customers and in return they get all the food and beer they want, Im thinking the beer was more important for these guys. The waitresses had the traditional Bavarian dress on but it was all authentic since was definitely off the tourist track, so it was all local. The best part was the food. I had the pork knuckle, but when it arrived I thought maybe they made a mistake because they brought the whole pig out. Tanya had the schnitzel, which was the size of a small table. She only ate half and what was left was still the size of a schnitty from the pub in Adelaide. The pork was sensational. Sensational. It was undoubtedly the star of the day. Sometimes life is good.