Oct 24

Again it was foggy, cloudy and cold, but the weather forecast promised sun by mid day.  Typical weather report - it lied.  We headed out to see Oberammergau & Garmish-Partenkirchen and wished the fog weren't there because we couldn't see the mountains & villages along the way.  Before we got to Oberammergau we diverted to see Schloss Linderhof, one of Mad King Ludwig's castles.  Unfortunately they have already winterized it by digging up the gardens, covering all the beautiful statues outside with crates and shutting down the fountains.  The gilded mermaid as a center for a fountain in front of the castle is magnificent (I saw it some decades ago) but hidden today.  We wandered around the exterior for awhile and didn't stay for the interior tour (in German) which would have delayed us too long for our day trip.  We basically stopped to look at the outside anyway.  We continued on to Oberammergau which Pat had seen 20 years ago and I last visited in 1960 to see the Passion Play.  Oberammergau is famous for 2 things ; wood carving and the Passion Play.  The wood carvings range from small shelf items to life size figures, mostly religious.  The Passion Play is held every 10 years (except for a couple of war cancellations) and was a result of the city promising to have a play about Jesus' life if they were spared from the plague in 1634.  None died and the play has been held since then.  It's an 8 hour production going from 8 to noon and 2 to 6.  All in German of course.  Many of the buildings are painted with religious frescoes.  Jesus & Mary are everywhere.  We found a nice local (read not tourist) restaurant for an excellent Bavarian lunch.  Bavarians typically have their main meal at lunch and a light meal at night, but when we're driving through mountains, a heavy meal with wine isn't the best idea so we go lite.

We drove to Garmish-Partenkirchen which is another tourist and winter sports area and there were many painted buildings, but without the intense religious theme.  It was more modern and a typical upscale ski town with high priced shops, many of which were closed during this slow period between warm weather and ski season.  Temperature was around 40 F and it was cloudy so it wasn't as impressive as it should have been.  We did encounter some sunshine on the way back and saw some beautiful mountain scenes.  If it is clear tomorrow, we may go back that way and see Ludwig's castle that was the model for Disney's Cinderella Castle.