Schloß Fernsteinsee, Schloß Linderhof & Kenzenhütte

Here are some photos that I neglected to post from a hike I took with my friends Bea & Liesbeth, and a short drive I took down into Austria. I've already been to Linderhof and Kenzenhütte so I won't bore you with a lot of text. Just enjoy the photos!

Waterfall by Kenzenhütte

Hello Bea!



Hochplatte


Even the reservoirs are beautiful here

Liesbeth

Bea taking a Kneipp cure



On some road in Austria

Imst, Austria
Fernsteinsee, Austria




Schloß Fernsteinsee, Austria



The green machine at Plansee, Austria


The Moorish Kiosk at Schloß Linderhof

The Pilgrimage to Wieskirche

It's basically in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing but farms and tiny towns peppering the countryside. Thank goodness for GPS (more on that later).

The story goes that a farmer in the area witnessed his statue of Christ crying, so tons of pilgrims poured into town. Because of this, the local abbot commissioned a church. And what a church! It's a UNESCO listed site, and an excellent example of the baroque and rococo architectural styles.
The outside didn't look like much and at first I wondered why the heck I drove there. Well, my doubts melted away when the clock struck 8:00 and the doors opened.

That's all I can say about it. The photos should pretty much speak for themselves:






















A stop on the road on the way there:



And here's the outside of Schloss Linderhof from the other day. Like I said, not much to see in the winter (relatively speaking, of course). I'll be returning after the thaw to see the grounds, hunting hut and artificial grotto. More photos then.

Here's the palace cat (I'm assuming) who greeted everyone as they came in:



















Yes, GPS is my friend. I didn't want to like it because I'm a big fan of maps and adventure and getting lost and all that good stuff. But when it's the difference between seeing six attractions vs. two, I'm sold! And that's the case. I would've never, ever covered so much ground in those 24 hours I had the car without GPS. Especially because both Linderhof and Wieskirche are in the middle of nowhere, and you need to take single-lane roads part of the way to get to them. Well, maybe not single, but 1 ½ width. Meaning that when someone is coming from the opposite direction, one of you needs to move off to the side. It sucks when you're near a cliff or a lake.

*break*

Did I ever tell you guys that the crest of Füssen has (what appears to be) three severed legs on it? Know what I love about that? The fact that theoretically, not just one, but at least two people are lacking a full compliment of limbs in the wake of that crest. But that's my own morbid sense of humor. (although I suspect that a couple of my sick friends will share that twisted view upon reading this)

I've read a few theories about the origins of the name of this town, but none of them mention feet, which is odd to me since "Fuß" (Fuss) means "foot". I wonder if they just don't want to admit that the town is pretty much named after feet or rather, the "feet" of the Alps.



Who cares. I just like the idea of living in a town where severed legs are the symbol. It's reminiscent of Chicago.

Oh, and here's a panoramic from Partnachklamm that I forgot to post: