Bavarian Cream

           Our third day was so extraordinarily amazing that we are going to post this with a disclaimer – all the events and locations were absolutely the best thing ever. There is probably going to be a world-wide shortage of superlatives after the descriptions are finished and though it may sound like hysterical ravings of delusional lunatics, it is all sober fact. It was seriously an emotional, and sensory elevator. I know the phrase is “emotional roller coaster”, but there were no low points. It was a perfect day.

            We awoke to the gentle clang of bells from the flock of sheep grazing on the hill outside our balcony – the flower draped balcony overlooking the cloister and the surrounding Ammergau Alps. After breakfast we drove through lush countryside, so velvety green that it looked like it had been stitched together from pieces of Ireland. The rolling farmlands gave way to dense forests clinging to steep slopes as we approached this Bavarian “Valley of the Kings”!

            Hohenschwangau was our first destination. https://www.hohenschwangau.de/ This delightful butter colored hunting lodge/ palace was built by Maximillian II of Bavaria. He became obsessed with the history of the site – it was a stronghold of medieval knights who had the swan as their heraldic device. The family adopted the swan – and how. Swans appear in the masonry, precious stones, bronze fittings, the wall paintings, woven into hangings, carved into the furniture, rendered in silver and gold ornamentation, and doubtless 1000 other incarnations that we have overlooked. The dilapidated fortress, Schwanstein was reimagined as a neo-gothic tribute to the age of chivalry.

The interior is notable for being just generally magnificent. No, it is famous for its spectacular fresco secco paintings. Almost more amazing than the building and its impedimenta is their superb condition. The windows were all open! It rains every day in the summer and temperatures ping pong between 55-85 degrees in the course of 12-14 hours. How is it that everything we make today begins to disintegrate almost as soon as it is made? Anyhow, the paintings depict beautifully romanticized scenes from German myth and legend, such as Parsifal, Tannhauser, and Siegfried.

            Ludwig II grew up spending his summers here and loved the area. It is truly sublime. From the second floor Queen’s apartments, the writing room windows afford absolutely exquisite views of Alpsee and the surrounding mountains. Ludwig II made very few changes to the third floor (King’s apartments) when he inherited the throne. He added a telescope to track the progress the builders were making on his new palace, Neuschwanstein, and had holes drilled into his bedroom ceiling and filled with crystals that could be illuminated to give the illusion of the night sky. We also saw the piano reserved for Wagner’s use when he came to visit Ludwig and share selections from his new operas.

            After our tour we hiked back down the cool forest trail marveling at the charming alpine gardens and wondering why no one ever talks about Hohenschwangau. A 30 minute hike up to the other side of the lake brought us to Cinderella/ Ludwigs’s castle. He called his Romaneque Revival fantasy Neuhohenschwangau. It was renamed Neuschwanstein after his death when it was opened to the public. The names are all mixed up as Hohenschwangau was built by Maximillian on the site of the medieval Schwanstein and Ludwig’s castle (now known as Neuschwanstein) was built on the ruins of two medieval fortifications called Vorderhohenschwangau and Hinterhohenschwangau.

            This romantic fantasy cost all the money – literally. Ludwig spent his entire fortune and went into massive debt. His ministers should have restricted his travel since every time he went visiting, he came home determined to have his own personal version of whatever he had just seen. There was a contemporary trend in “restoring” castles during this time period and a look in at the reconstructed Wartburg near Eisenach and the Château de Pierrefonds, which were undergoing transformations from ruined castles into Pre-Raphaelite dream palaces.

            The interior bears witness to Ludwig’s veneration of Wagner’s operas and the tremendous impact of a trip to Istanbul. The design of the building was actually the work of a celebrated stage designer, Christian Jank, but Ludwig was personally involved in every detail. The palace merges Romanesque, Gothic, and Byzantine motifs and elements and even some of the local Lüftlmalerei fresco style, typical for local Allgäu farmers' houses. Again scenes from Lohengrin, Tannhauser, Parsifal, and Tristan and Isolde cover the walls and there is even a Tannhauseresque grotto build in as a passage between two apartments.

            He had a marvelous performance space called The Hall of Singers constructed. The stage has a painted scene from one of Wagner’s operas, but it was never used in Ludwig’s lifetime; this is attributed to his dislike of having people around him, but the palace was not actually finished at the time of his death. In fact only a very few of the almost 200 planned rooms were completed. I forgot to mention it, but really, it should go without saying that swans abound.

            The Istanbul trip resulted in the throne room. It is a decadent homage to Byzantine Christianity that makes clear Ludwig’s opinion about the divine rights of kings and also their role as mediator between God and lesser mortals. The room induces lightheadedness as your head whips around almost uncontrollably trying to decide whether to fixate on the magnificent 2,000,000 tile mosaic under your feet, the two tiers of simulated porphyry and lapis columns, or the ton of gleaming bronze encrusted with egg-sized ruby, emerald, and sapphire glass in the shape of a Byzantine crown over your head. After you get your bearings, you can admire the gorgeous cupola with its radiant blue background and scattered gold stars, and the heavily gilded representations of Christ, the Apostles and six holy kings in the apse. The walls show saints and the kings performing their various notable deeds.

            It was really fantastic – in every sense of the word. Hohenschwangau was gorgeous and amazing, but in the traditional palace manner – a genuine living space (for royalty), comfortable (for royalty), but Neuschwanstein felt different. It seemed more like a life-sized doll house for Ludwig to play out his personal theater of kingship or chivalric heroism or whatever. It all seemed like the world’s most incredible theater setting. In any case, we are sad he didn’t have the money or time to finish this or to carry out his plan of three additional castles. I can’t even imagine where he would have gone from here!

            We spent so much time in Ludwigland that we had to forego our planned visits to Lindau and to Vaduz castle. We jumped into the car and made all speed for Bregenz! This trip is the realization of two long-held dreams – attending Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival (incidentally built expressly for Wagner and to his design by Ludwig II) and attending the Bregenzer Festspiele.

            After ten years on the waiting list we finally scored tickets for Bayreuth! As soon as we heard I immediately checked the schedule for Bregenz and was euphoric to discover that the dates lined up so that we could attend Turandot (my favorite opera since I was seven years old!). I am sure all the other works produced inside their theater are wonderful, but for us the Bregenzer Festspiele is about the Seebuhne! That is the stage that is built onto Lake Constance.

            Let’s just preface this section with a statement. We love opera. Opera has the capacity to be the greatest art form; that is because when done correctly (in my opinion) it is the synthesis of all the other arts – drama (literature and theater), music, ballet (had its birth as a sideshow to opera, although you rarely see any very good dance in opera today – so I’m reaching here), and the visual arts (costumes, sets, elaborate feats of theatrical engineering).

            That rhapsody over, I will now attempt to do justice to the production we saw….No, can’t be done. It was glorious! The voices were very good (I didn’t care for Liu, but the rest of the audience seemed to love her – too much vibrato and the tone was too hard in a role I like to see interpreted as all innocence and dewy youthfulness). The set design featured ranks of life-sized replica Xian terra cotta warriors partially submerged in front of the stage and just visible elevated over the back of the set. The central portion of the stage was a revolving asymmetrical cylinder set into a sloping recreation of the Great Wall. The top of the cylinder opened and revealed a giant video screen.

If you think a performance with light up dragons, battles with flaming swords, Chinese acrobats, 100 ft. fountains, performers entering via royal barge, an execution, and a collection of unsuccessful suitors’ heads in jars would be over the top, you’d be wrong. It was incredible! We thoroughly enjoyed every second. The glory of the natural setting – like at Santa Fe Opera Festival, adds an undeniable extra dimension to the richness of the experience. Lake Constance, or Bodensee, as it is called here is absolutely beautiful. I am adding links to a couple of the most famous arias –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE4EgIG0pew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXPfxafHfTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h34omCNzK9g

            So that was it; the best day ever! The absolute cream of Bavaria with a side of Austria, garnished with Italy!

More cowbell...

We were up and out super early to collect our rental car, the not-so-luxe Opel Corsa. No real complaints – it is a perfectly cromulent vehicle. Our first stop was Lindenhof Palace, one of Ludwig II’s little cottages. The drive out was truly lovely; blue skies and dense forest gave way to blue skies and charming farm communities and then suddenly blue skies over Alpine meadows and peaks – all within 45 minutes of central Munich.

The palace is situated in a velvety green valley surrounded by gently rising, timbered slopes. These provided a perfect canvas for the garden designer to create an exquisite setting for this gem of a residence. Linderhof is the smallest of Ludwig’s palace projects and the only one of the 3 built that he lived to see completed (he had plans for 6!). Despite the hodgepodge construction process the finished floorplan is a masterpiece of perfect symmetry. Each room has a unique color scheme (with the exception of the Eastern & Western tapestry chambers which are both red).Yellow and lilac cabinets flank the Audience Chamber on the west side, while a pink and a blue cabinet flank the dining room on the east.

Photography is not allowed inside, but a few facts will present a clear picture. Ludwig II had no real political power, but his family was spectacularly wealthy. His vision for this palace was as an homage to Louis XIV and came hard on the heels of a visit to France that included time at Versailles. He originally intended to make his own reproduction Versailles, but it didn’t work out. He settled for cramming a staggering load gold, silver, precious stones, porcelain, and portraiture of the Bourbon dynasty into his little hunting lodge (it had in fact been his father’s hunting lodge before he decided that a remake was in order).

It was completely gorgeous – his bedroom (in his favorite blue) boasts two spectacular Meissen-ware mirror/ table constructions that looked about twenty feet high and must have weighed several tons each. The view from the bed is an artificial waterfall created from a mountain stream. This ran under the house acting as 19^th century air conditioning. He loved gadgets like this. That and the fact that he couldn’t stand other people around led him to the fun “self-laying table” in his dining room. The table mechanically lowered to the kitchens, where the staff would lay out the dinner service and raise it again. This way he had a fun toy AND didn’t have to see anyone while dining.

I could carry on forever (obviously) so I’ll just post a link to the palace here. http://www.schlosslinderhof.de/englisch/palace/history.htm

Our next stop was the Wieskirche. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site in the absolute middle of German nowhere. The church is incredibly unexpected – this spectacular Rococo meringue was constructed to house an image of Christ that was seen to shed tears in the 1730’s. The statue has quite a backstory. It was carried in a religious procession in the early 1730’s, but was considered so grim/ and or depressing that it was retired and handed off to a local farmer. The farmer and his wife witnessed the statue producing tears and it almost immediately began to perform miracles. Pilgrims came from all over Europe to seek miraculous cures and assistance for their problems. The volume of visitors was so enormous that the local monastery had this magnificent shrine constructed to accommodate them. There was certainly a good sized crowd moving through when we arrived!

The central dome, embellished with an exquisite fresco of the apotheosis of Christ, is held aloft by eight pillars – each composed of four joined columns. The enormous, clear glass windows and the white walls create an extraordinary sense of lightness in a space so heavily encrusted with gilded plaster ornamentation, mammoth, colored marble shrines, and gigantic sculptures.

http://www.wieskirche.de/

The drive out was enlivened by herds of cows beside the road, crossing the road, all over in fact. They can’t sneak up on you as they all wear cow bells. The jingle jangle of cow bell accompanied us into the church in fact – it is still surrounded by farms, and horses and cows had to be bypassed to get inside.

Next we headed for Oberammergau – world famous for its decennial Passion Play, which isn’t happening this year sadly. In any case it is an absolutely charming Bavarian town. The houses are covered in quite wonderful frescoes – some are traditional characters, some are religious, and many are just decorative. This is also a good place to mention the wonder that is the German window box. Every single precious little wooden building we have seen is frosted in the healthiest, most exquisite show of blooms. Do they start these inside in the winter? Is it a subject taught in the schools? Are they delivered at regular intervals to every household by a government agency?

Another attraction are the woodworking shops and galleries. Everything is the best crafted, quaintest, most thoroughly charming Christmas windmill, Nutcracker, cuckoo clock, tchotchke ever.

All this adorable left us in dire need of sustenance and precious biergartens and cafes were on every side. We ignored all of these when we saw the completely ridiculous confections created by the aptly named Eiscafe Paradiso. I don’t even know what we had – it was chocolate, caramel, cream, and raw delicious. So delicious.

Finally, we arrived at our home for the evening the Hotel Blaue Gams in Ettal. We chose Ettal because of the marvelous Benedictine Cloister. Our hotel is perched on the hillside above it and our balcony (flower-decked, obviously) affords the most marvelous views.

We arrived at Kloster Ettal smack in the middle of a bake sale / field day celebration. It was all very entertaining, but we eventually made our way into the basilica. This foundation was a gift of Ludwig the Bavarian in the 1330’s. His horse knelt before a figure of the Virgin at the location and that is how the site was selected. The abbey has had its ups and downs since then! The Reformation, Secularization, and so on, but it eventually ended up back in Catholic hands. During WWII Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in residence here and was involved with the monks in conspiring against the Nazis.

    Inside, the basilica is decorated with plentiful gilt ornamentation and intricately carved confessionals and statues line the walls. The dome has an amazing fresco showing Christ's Ascension held up by ornate columns. The abbey houses about 50 monks and operates as a brewery, distillery, bookstore, cheese making enterprise, and a secondary school.