Castles, Palaces, and Passion Plays

Today we took a drive to see some castles and palaces and views of the beautiful countryside. One thing we noticed is in Switzerland you are always looking at the alps; in Austria you are in the alps!

This was a suspension bridge over a huge gap in the mountains!

Not sure if I could cross that bridge, but I’d give it a try!

We stopped to see the Neuschwanstein Castle

This is the castle Cinderella’s and Sleeping Beauty’s castles were modeled after

A neat street lamp in Hohenschwangau, Bavaria

May poles are big here. This one shows flags of different countries

This maypole has different professions on it

We made a stop on the town of Oberammergau, which is in Bavaria, Germany. Oberammergau is famous for the Passion Play the villagers put on every ten years. 400 years ago, the plague raged in Europe. In 1633 the Oberammergau villagers took a solemn view that if their lives were spared they would perform the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ every tenth year. Amazingly there are no more deaths, and the next year the first Passion Play took place. It was supposed to be performed in 2020, but with the coronavirus, they put it off for two years. This Saturday will be the first performance of this year. It is a five hour play with a three hour dinner intermission and runs five days a week until October. It is performed in German. Over 2000 local villagers participate in the play and you must be a local to be in it. The costumes are made by the villagers and no wigs are allowed, so they must grow out their hair and beards for the accuracy and authenticity of their roles. A “hair and beard decree” is used months ahead which stops participating villagers from getting haircuts. As you walk around the village, you can usually tell which locals are in the play by their full beards and longer hair.

This building is where the Passion Play is performed. It used to be performed in the cemetery on the graves of the villagers who died in the plague.

Scenes from the play on a building across the street

We took a walk along this path next to a pretty stream

Muggles are coming, so Russell pretends to look at the flowers!

Such beautiful art work on the buildings here

Of course we had to stop for some chocolate

We continued our journey on through Germany

Our next stop was the Linderhof Palace in Germany. This is where King Ludwig II of Bavaria lived. It is the smallest of the three palaces he built and the only one that he saw completed.