Riedenburg and Kelheim

Riedenburg town with Burg Rosenburg in the top left.

Time to get moving on seeing as many of the castles in Bavaria that we can. We are determined (well I am, Malcolm just humours me) to see each one on the "Schlösserland" poster we have.

First stop was Burg Rosenburg (burg, like schloss, means castle) which was a dream castle for a falconer. Today they still have a falconer and also  eagles, vultures, buzzards and other birds of prey. We got to watch the show and it was fantastic to see some very ugly buzzards become beautiful when flying.

Burg Prunn

Second stop was Burg Prunn which is on a rocky bluff above the canal and reminded me of when we went to the monasteries in Meteora.

Liberation Hall, Kelheim

We drove along the canal to our third stop which was Kelheim. The memorial there is called the Liberation Hall which commemorates the victories against Napoleon in 1813 to 1815.

Inside Liberation Hall

Alas when we got home I did realise our first stop was not one of the list to see but it was worth going to!!  We have now seen 32% of our poster.

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Bolzano

The view from our balcony

Back in May we spent the weekend in Bolzano catching up with some very good friends, Pucci and Aldo. Bolzano is about half way between Munich and Bologna and as none of us had been before, it sounded like a good idea. We drove down early Saturday and left Sunday night. It was a great weekend and a beautiful town. Lovely to be able to be in Italy in such a short time.

Bolzano (German name: Bozen) is in the Alto Aldige (German name:Sud Tirol). The places in this region tend to be more german than italian but luckily for us Bolzano is the one place more italian. When we arrived there was a celebration of the police there with displays of vintage police cars and then other vintage cars. We also got to walk along lovely paths to a castle that although interesting did not earn us a blue dot!

It was great to catch up with good friends and to be back in Italy.

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Linderhof

On Louise and Ian's last full day here we took them to Schloss Linderhof, Ludwig II's palace which is described as his "most irresistibly charming whimsy". It is in a valley surrounded by Alps. Ludwig was inspired by Versailles and dedicated to Louis XIV. It was built for him to spend time there alone and not for guests, so there was one bedroom, dining table for one and even a opera setting for one.

It was heavily decorated and very ornate. The dining room was especially interesting as it has a "magic table". So that Ludwig did not have to see the servants this table would be lowered to the kitchen and then come back fully laden in 30 seconds.

The grounds were stunning. On the grounds is a fake stalactite cave for him to watch Wagner operas performed. There was a balcony (again for just him) or he could be rowed about on a small illuminated lake by a servant. He was the only member of the audience for these performances.

Afterwards we went to the nearby town of Oberammergau for ice cream and a wander.

That evening was our last meal together, so we went off to the local Gasthaus where Louise was treated to a table full of people in lederhosen and dirindls. She even made a friend:

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We even got to add another sticker to our Schloss poster - we are well on the way to trying to see them all!

Maibaum

After having gone to May Day last year and having a great time we thought it was important to take Louise and Ian to a traditional festival. So we went to one in Eichenkofen which is a very very small town nearby.

There was a band playing and tables all set up in and around cow sheds. The cows were moved to the side and cake stalls set up where they usually are milked. Every time more people turned up they just put out more tables in the main street, i.e. the only street.

When it came time to putting the pole up the local man in charge called for volunteers and all the young men of the town got up to volunteer. Unlike last year, where a crane was use, these guys lifted it with straps on a series of different length poles. With every hoist someone would run along and give them all a drink of beer.