Partnach Canyon & Linderhof Castle

Today's adventure was to walk through Partnach canyon near the township of Garmish-Partenkirchen and then to visit Linderhof castle completed in 1878 by "Mad" King Ludwig. This is the same king who built the fairy-tale Neuschwanstein castle and bankrupted Bavaria.

The canyon is reached by walking through the Olympic

Stadium used for the 1936 Winter Olympics.

Last year when we came with Claus, Dennis & Bonnie the canyon was closed.

The canyon is normally open in winter and

the dripping water, spray and waterfalls freeze over.

We take a horse-drawn ride from the

Olympic Park to the canyon's entrance.

Then we walk through the canyon

My lasting memory is one

 of booming noise as the water crashed and tumbled

 its way through the canyon

Once through the canyon, we need to return.

We decide to do this by walking to the cable car.

For some dumb reason, we did this in the reverse order.

Instead of walking  up the hill now, we should have

 taken the cable car first and then walked down the hill

and through the canyon.

30 minutes into the 20 minute walk, we reach the top . . .

. . . and take the gondola back down.

When we got back, we re-read Claus' instructions and

 he said to be sure to do the opposite of what we did.

Lindenhof castle is a short drive from Garmish-Partenkirchen.

It was the only castle of three completed before King Ludwig

was removed, declared insane and, it appears, murdered.

Insane or not, he left marvelous asssets for Bavaria

that will be  enjoyed for centuries to come.

We take the English-speaking tour but we're

not allowed to take photographs inside.

After the tour, we then visit the venus grotto.

This is a completly artificial cave, modelled on a

scene from Wagner's opera "Tannhauser"

In here, orchestras and singers would perform

Wagnerian operas for the king's pleasure.

The grotto is replete with stalactiites and stalagmites

There are other small buildings scattered around the estate.

This is inside one of them, the Moroccan cottage.

Today we both went mad with the cameras- there was so much worth photographing and videoing. I took 180 photos but have stripped them down to a mere 80 that can be seen by clicking here