Then there is the Chiemsee. This is the largest lake in Bavaria and the location of one of three of Ludwig II's castles. Many even refer to it as the Bavarian Sea, although it is not salty, so it can't technically be a sea. The lake is about 60 km southwest of Munich near the Bavarian Alps and is also not far from Salzburg, another place I long to go see. (Bonus question: Which famous composer's homeplace is Salzburg, Austia?) The lake has a surface area of about 80 km(2) and is 72.7 meters deep. To give you a perspective, Lake Marion, the largest lake in SC, has a surface area of 450 km(2) with an average depth of 4 meters at full pond. One big difference is, of course, how it formed. Unlike the lakes of South Carolina that are man-made from river damming, the lakes in this region of Germany are primarily left-over depressions from the ice age. This lake is the remains of a glacier and is fed by three local rivers and drained by a fourth.
Within this lake are three islands, one large one called Herreninsel (Gentlemen Island), a smaller one called Fraueninsel (Ladies Island), and lastly a small uninhabited island whose name means Weed Island. It is on Herreninsel that Ludwig built his castle, Schloss Herrenchiemsee, in 1878. (Schloss, pronounced shloess, is the German word for castle.) Built is actually not a proper term, as the castle was not finished. It is modelled after the Palace of Versailles in France, as Ludwig II idolized King Louis XIV of France. The castle's completion was abruptly halted in 1886 at the death of Ludwig II. On his way back, after meetings concerning his outrageous spending on his castle projects and behavior in which the government had declared him insane, he mysteriously drowned near the shores of Lake Starnberg, along with the psychiatrist who had declared him insane.
Some uncompleted sections of the castle were demolished, but there are still many rooms in their completed form that can be viewed. The gardens surrounding the castle were also incomplete, but those along the main entryway, complete with fountains and water works had been completed and are still maintained today.
On the Fraueninsel, there is a nunnery called the Frauenwörth Abbey. It is still active today and is a romantic Romanesque journey dating back to the 8th century.
I have great hopes that we can get to this area over the November holidays if the weather permits.
The question for today is "In what month is Oktoberfest celebrated?"
The words for today are the days of the week: Monday (they start the week on Monday here) is Montag (mone tahg), Dienstag is Tuesday (deens tahg), Mittwoch is Wednesday (mit voke where the ch is not really a hard k but rather that sound a cat makes coughing up a hair ball), Donnerstag is Thursday (dohn ners tahg), Freitag is Friday (fry tahg), Samstag is Saturday (zahms tahg), and Sonntag is Sunday (zone tahg.) I bet you can guess the word for "day" now too!! Yep, it is der Tag
Auf Wiedersehen
