Bavaria part 9

Well this is going to be the last posting with pics from our Bavarian trip last year August. This time some pics from a daytrip we made to Herrenchiemsee, a palacecomplex on the island Herreninsel (gentleman island) in the middle of the Chiemsee a freshwater lake. The "Neues Schloss" (New Castle) is the most famous building and was build by order of Ludwig II. But when he died in 1886 it wasn't finished yet. From the total of 70 rooms, 50 rooms were unfinished.

The palace was also suppose to be some kind of monument to show Ludwig's adoration of Louis XIV and was meant to be an equivalent of the palace of Versailles. It is also called the Bavarian Versailles.

From Munich we took a train to Prien am Chiemsee. This traintrip didn't went so smooth, because thanks to the wrong information of some Deutsche Bahn staff member we first ended up in Salzburg, Austria. We lost three to four hours which left us less time to spend at Herrenchiemsee. At least we managed to get some Mozartkugel (not the original ones, because we didn't had enough time). It took some time but we managed to get the right train from Salzburg to Prien am Chiemsee.

From the station there was a steamtrain running to the small harbour from were we could take a boat to Herreninsel to visit the palace.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit grey, so most of the pics are a bit less animated then the pics from part 8.
On the way to Herreninsel by boat you pass Fraueninsel (woman island) a smaller island at Chiemsee.

The gardens and fountains in front of the main palace show a lot of similarity with those of Versailles.

The Great Hall of Mirrors is one of the highlights of the tour. It was not allowed to take pictures inside, so I had to shoot this one from the hip. That's why it is a bit moved. You can compare it a little bit with the original here.

The official website can be found here. And here you can download a brochure (PDF).

Bavaria part 8

Things are going slow, but little by little we are getting there.

In my former post I said that I would update it with some extra backgroundinformation, but when I was checking on the internet I found out that there was not so much more to add, so I decided to skip the update and start preparing the last two post with pics from our trip to Bavaria, Germany last year.

In this post you will see mostly pics from Munich and taken at the Englischer Garten (English Garden), one of the biggest parks in Europe and very pleasant to walk through. The weather was very nice that day, so it gave me quite some nice photoshoot opportunities.

The street on the right is the Maximilianstrasse (Maximilianstreet). The building on the left and in the middle is the Residenz.

A little closer look at the Residenz.

It seems that there isn't a major city anymore which doesn't have constructionwork going on, spoiling the view. In Holland it's the same in my hometown Utrecht, but also in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag. Very annoying especially for tourists.

I can't remember which building it was, but it was not far from the Haus der Kunst (House of Art) on the opposite site of the street.

Some advertising at the Haus der Kunst, near the South entrance of the Englischer Garten .

There is an artificial stream that runs through the Englischer Garten. There is a water pumping mechanism that produces a permanent wave that was used by surfers, although officially swimming and surfing is prohibited. Those surfers drew a lot of attention from people strolling through the park

The Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower), originally built from 1789 to 1790, but burnt down in 1944 during World War II and rebuild in 1952. The beer garden that surrounds the tower is with 7000 seats the second largest in Munich. I took a break here and had a nice cool so-called Mass (one litre glass of beer).

This guy was a funny street musician playing Blues and his lyrics were improvised based on things happening around him and on people he saw passing by. When I wanted to take his picture he started to sing that I needed to pay a little fee for listening and taking pictures, otherwise his tough friends from the biker's gang would come after me and beat the shit out of me. I didn't took any risk and gave him some change.

The monopteros, a Greek style temple, built in 1836 on an artificial hill made from left over building materials from the Residenz.

The Ludwigskirche (Catholic Parish and University Church St. Louis).

And a bit of the inside

Bavaria part 7

I'm almost getting to the last pictures from our trip to Bavaria last year. There probably will be one or two more postings and then I'm done with Bavaria.

In this posting some pics from our trip around Lake Starnberg or Starnberger See as it's called in German. The main sightseeing places we wanted to visit were the memorial place (the cross in the water) were the drowned body of Ludwig II was found and Roseninsel (Roses Island). The death of Ludwig II until today is still a mystery. Officially his death was suicide by drowning, but he was known as a strong swimmer and according to the autopsy report there was no water found in his lungs. Until today the Wittelsbach-family refuses to solve the mystery.

On the way to Roseninsel we also passed Possenhofen Castle (see picture 14) the birthplace of empress Elisabeth ("Sissi"). Later there will be a little update with some more backgroundinformation. For now enjoy the pictures.