Popular Sights

Saturday, November 07, 2009

At the beginning there was … a cottage, which had caught the eye of King Max 2nd’s eye whilst hunting in the Ammerwald. He sent for Friedrich Ziebland, who had previously refurbished Hohenschwangau. The cottage was enlarged, in a style popular with nobility and royalty at that time and became the King’s cottage in 1869. By that time he was Crown Prince, later to be Ludwig II had visited his father Max II. in Linderhof. He was particularly enthusiastic about the Castle because of hunting and ordered that Linderhof should be equipped with all the fineries popular at that time. The court architect Dollman sought to develop the building further and added some extravagant ornamental plasterwork.

The exquisite rooms have been furnished in an extremely spectacular style, even for a monarch. It is said that the king let a gentle deer run in the large South Room and it saw herself in the mirror, the deer seemed to think there was a herd and jumped into the middle of the mirror causing considerable damage! In the dining hall you can see the much admired table that Ludwig II dined at was brought up for each dinner from the kitchen and when the monarch was dining alone, he gaze on the portrait of the beautiful Lady du Barry.

The king had audacious ideas, even for the whole park. For the grotto latest technical developments were to be used, 24 electric generators from the Siemens Company were placed in the engine house and therefore established one of the first Bavarian electric works. And in addition a rainbow-projector was used to add colour onto the walls.

Beside the work of the engineers the interior designers were also very busy: coral candle holders, coral chairs, a throne made from shells, simulated stalactites and the boat, also made from shells. Even the favorite horse of the monarch, which was running wild in the garden and ate the roses, had to wait whilst his Lord saw the grotto’s completion.

Linderhof is full of such stories and a place where you can give your fancy full range. In winter it is perhaps even more beautiful, when snow freshly fallen is on the castle and the park has its own special charm. The Munich court garden architect Carl von Effner was responsible for the landscaping of the garden and was playing with all themes of the rococo style: a 25 meters high fountain, the cascade, the Neptune’s Font as well as the terraced garden that visitors find so charming.

Information obtained from the Office Passion Play website.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

For those that are new to travel, you may be wondering when reading through an itinerary what is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that holds a list of outstanding cultural or natural universal value such as, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It could be a monument, building, mountain, forest, lake, desert, complex or city.

So how is a site selected?

Only countries that have signed the World Heritage Convention, pledging to protect their natural & cultural heritage can submit nominations for properties on their territory to be considered for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

A nominated property is independently evaluated by several Advisory Boards. Once a site has been nominated & evaluated, the intergovernmental World Heritage Committee makes the final decision. One per year, the Committee meets to decide which sites will be inscribed on the World Heritage list.

The program aims to catalogue & preserve sites of outstanding importance, either cultural or natural, to the common heritage of humankind.

There are currently 878 World Heritage Sites in 145 countries. These include 679 cultural, 174 natural and 25 mixed properties.

You may have visited a place in the U.S. already, not realizing it was a UNESCO site such as the Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon, Yosemite Yellowstone or Olympic National Park.

Click here for a full list of site.

I have seen 20 sites in 9 countries, so only 858 to go, but I have to say that certain countries do not interest me AT ALL, so my goal would be to see at least half of the UNESCO sites while traveling the world.

How many UNESCO sites have you visited?