Sparkling Garmisch with mavericks: Part II - The Castles

If you are in Bombay and you can't sight a Vadapav/Pavbhaji stall, rest assured that you are out of Bombay. If you are in Chennai, and you can't sight a temple along the road side or a crossing, rest assured you are out of Chennai. And if you are in Europe and you can't sight a castle built by a King or knight or any other richer of the richest in any province, rest assured you are out of Europe. In fact, castles in Europe are like Turkish Kebap shops -- they are everywhere - quite ubiquitous. While staying in Europe or traveling across it, you can hardly ignore these grandeur structures and specially the gardens associated with most of them. To add to the grandeurness, each of these structures have a rich history behind them and every European state "Basking in the History" preserves and displays it very well.

Frauenchiemsee has a small castle in an island

Herrenchiemsee -- A castle inspired by Chetau De Verssailles

Yellow Castle of Ludwig's dad

Garmisch-Partenkirchen follows no different rule and ostentatiously displays all the castles in the province very proudly. The region Bavaria is not only famous for its beer (e.g. Munich beer festival) but also has a lot of castles around it. While a trip to all the castles in the region would consume at least a month, we had a plan to visit the most famous ones, specially the ones' built by mad King Ludwig. Now, King Ludwig is considered mad and possibly this madness forced him to build these unnecessary yet eye-pleasing structures one after the other. But then, I kept on wondering what madness forces us to pay our money and time to see others' wealth? Absolutely ridiculous, isn't it? After a lot of brain storming though, I have come to consensus that most of us (atleast me) visit these grand places to pay our homage to the stupendous work of art that is on display. Behind the name of any King/Queen or Lord (Ludwig or whoever) we aim to discover the face of an artist, admire his/her creation and inspire from it. Any other views on this are welcome.

Dad's castle overlooking the town

Neuschwanstein Disney castle: One of those night photography attempts

Neuschwanstein Disney castle with a mystique background

The most famous castle in Bavaria is the Disney castle Neuschwanstein but the other two Herrenchiemsee and Frauenchiemsee were worth visiting as well. The yellow castle in Neuschwanstein is the castle of Ludwig's Father and was beautiful too. In my observation, during ancient times in Europe, most of the Kings' and knights' were stung by madness and went on rampage building castles and other structures one after the other. The originator of this madness was probably the French King Louis XIV who built a revolutionary Chetau De Verssailles. This revolutionary castle apparently led to the French revolution and you know the exact reason for revolt, the minute you step in one of the bedrooms or dining rooms or just the foyer of the palace.

On a positive side though it was an inspiration to most of the art works that followed in Europe and may be around. Not surprisingly most of the castles are very very beautiful and are worth every visit. The other visit to Bavaria place won't go waste at all as there is a lot left to see. As an example, we could not sight Neuschwanstein from inside for the lack of time. Winter is the best time to visit to this place of the world for skii amongst other things but the calander is packed for this winter so hopefully next one or may be later...may be...just may be....