A Munich Surprise
This past weekend my wife and I flew to Munich for a friend’s wedding in nearby Salzburg. It was a red-eye flight and I caught about three hours of sleep before we arrived Friday 7:30am, Central European Time. While we waited for our suitcase (yes, you read that correctly: one suitcase…one of the perks of traveling without kids) we realized that it was the last weekend of Oktoberfest. And we were in Munich. We had to go.
So there we were, big beer in hand, my wife and I in the Augustiner tent, 12 years after the first time we went to Oktoberfest, the year we met. While it was a quick-in-and-out thing, we managed to get one good photo. And yes, we missed our kids.
The wedding in Austria
Fast forward to the next day, Saturday. 2pm to be exact. We were already dressed the part and had just checked in to our room in the guesthouse onsite at the wonderful wedding location, the Kellerbauer. The hosts Maria and Roman Mailänder deserve a shout out for a distinctly rustic and unique experience at the Kellerbauer.
Our friends Angie and Andre got married there, and a party they threw. Fun and intimate, elegant and a little rowdy, this wedding had an Austrian band with an impressive singer from Graz, and a drummer who had played in an Oktoberfest tent the day before. They rocked!
We danced, we met awesome people, we ate incredible food, the rocker gave me the mic to sing as well, we danced some more. And we played a game.
The rules to the game were simple: draw a piece of paper from a bag, and follow the instruction on that paper. I seem to have picked the perfect one, which required me to hug Andre, the groom every time I saw him. I asked for clarification and was assured, “the more awkward, the better.” I absolutely rocked that one.
I think, all-in we got about 28 hours of sleep over 5 nights.
Mad King Ludwig
Ah, the Royals. They endured so much misery, strife and…incest, all for power and wealth. And this story ends with an unsolved mystery. Bavarian König “Mad King” Ludwig II was perhaps an exception to the royal rule. He canceled the proposed marriage to his cousin, Sophie Charlotte, and he didn’t show the least bit of interest in politics. Despite this, the events that took place during his reign were catalyst to the Great War (First World War) which was segue to the Second World War. I won’t say he was instrumental in any of this but it was an interesting time indeed.
The King Ludwig was a lover of art, music, architecture and men. This is perhaps the sole reason he did not marry his cousin as his family would have had him do. He sure knew how to spend money though, building several amazing palaces and castles, including the popular Neuschwanstein Castle.
This week I had the pleasure of visiting another of his palaces, the Herrenchiemsee built extravagantly on an island in the middle of Lake Chiemsee, outside of Munich, Germany. Inside this palace, his odd obsession with French King Louis XIV—that’s Louis the 14th for those who didn’t pay attention to Roman numerals—is observable. Although the French imperial died a century and a half earlier, the Mad King had an ornate bed built for him, covered in gold.
And the mystery? Most likely due to his absolute disinterest in political leadership and negligent spending far outside his means, he was deposed, declared insane, and held in a castle by Lake Starnberg. One day later he, along with his doctor, was found dead on the shore of the lake. The water was waist deep and both men were able-bodied swimmers. No water was found in the Mad King’s lungs. His death was ruled suicide and stands that way to this day. Was it suicide or murder?
Bonus: A day in the life of an Austrian
Keeping in line with the Austrian theme, here are 20 things you might, or might not know about Austrians and Austrian culture. Austrians Eat Pork for Breakfast and Invented Coffee as We Know It
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