May 19 - Prien, Herrenchiemsee Castle

After checking out of the little hotel in Prien, we drove to Schloss Herrenchiemsee, the first of Ludwig II's castles on our list. Herrenchiemsee was inspired by Versailles, and by Ludwig's love of everything French. There is a Hall of Mirrors in Herrenchiemsee, just as there is in Versailles, and had Ludwig been able to keep building and building, this castle would have been just as large as Versailles. The fountains on the grounds of Herrenchiemsee are as ornate as they can possibly be, too many to describe, too varied to remember as I type this.

Ludwig spent a fortune building this castle (on its own private island) and then spent only ten days in it before he died at the young age of forty. The interior of the castle was never completed, but we toured ten finished rooms filled from floor to ceiling with everything beautiful your mind can imagine. Crystal chandeliers studded with candles, plush carpets, statues and clocks, rococco-style furniture, French-inspired art and collectibles, painted ceilings and gilded ornaments, porcelain mirrors and marble walls, red-carpeted stairways.... it was all just too beautiful to even take in at once. Every nook and corner, every spot on every wall and ceiling... everything was just decorated and gilded and painted and embellished and its over-the-topness seemed to just be right for the location, the era, the king. In every room, we just didn't know where to look first.

There was such a sadness about Ludwig II and his life. Here was a King who had everything his mind could imagine, and he spent most of his life and his days by himself. In the King's dining room (in this castle and in others), the dining room table was set on top of a portion of the floor that could be lowered down to the kitchen with an elaborate chain and pulley system where the table was set one floor below, the food was arranged.... and then the table would be hoisted up to the dining room so Ludwig could have his meal without even seeing the servants.

Today also, we visited The Wieskirche, in Bayern.... "The White Church." In the middle of a field of wildflowers, within view of the mountain ranges.... this white church with a red roof looks elegantly plain on the outside, but when you walk inside, your breath is taken away by its magnificent beauty. Gold and porcelain, marble and wood, painted ceilings, gilded statues.... it's all here, and when you look around at the unbelievable artistry in this church, your first thought is that this must be what heaven looks like, and if heaven doesn't look like this, then why bother to go there?

This entire day, our eyes have seen more beautiful things than our minds can process. The mountains, the castle, the church, the endless fields of those yellow wildflowers called butterblooms. It has been a day to remember, in an ever-growing list of days we don't want to forget.