Today was the first of my Bavaria day trips. The most famous castle in Bavaria Neuschwanstein is somewhere I planned to go along with Linderhof nearby. I planned to do a day to each. When I was looking up train prices it was quite costly and Linderhof required two train changes.

Instead I found day bus tours from Munich to each of the castles. They are actually close enough and there are options to do them together on the same day. I opted for the same day tour which released a day for me to do something else.

Since I was going to have the Bavaria castle pass I looked around for what other tours where nearby that I can use on the pass. I found one for Herrenchiemsee a Palace located on an island lake along with a monastery.

I had to be a Munich Hauptbanhof 930am for the tour start. Wandering around early there were lots of people in Bavarian dress for Oktoberfest along with scrumptious bakeries. I also found the refugee reception centre next to our tour office although there were no throngs of refugees seen in media reports earlier and the place was deserted.

Herrenchiemsee is not a popular tour with most going to Neuschwanstein. I also chose to avoid Neuschwanstein today on the weekend and try tomorrow on a weekday to avoid weekend crowds. Our group only had 11 people plus our guide Petra to make it a comfortable group of 12. They were all Americans except for one Australian couple with their daughter.

I had to pay 11 Euros for the boat ($15) but I was the only one who has castle entrance paid for with my pass. Not sure how much the others paid as they collected money.

First we rode a commuter train, while we all sat together at one end of the carriage as Petra explained some background for todays visit. "Mad King Ludwig" was a big admirer of Louis XIV of France. Ludwig's father was very strict, they had to put down their cutlery when their father finished eating even if they hadnt. For punishment he could be made to stand out in the rain for an hour.

In contrast he admired Louis XIV who became King of France in his youth and had a great deal of independence. As Louis was the 'Sun King' Ludwig built a replica of Versailles and made himself the 'Moon King'.

The circumstances of Ludwig's death are suspicious. He wasnt interested in building armies and alliances, and instead focused on Palace building. A team of five doctors declared him 'mad' and he was taken away. The next day he was found dead 'drowned' in a lake.

Rumours say he had first been shot in the back to make it look like a drowning. His casket has never been opened to examine the body adding to the folklore over the years.

At the end of our train ride we crossed the platform to an adjacent steam train that slowly pulled in. There was a local band that played as the train pulled in. This is not normal but lucky for us part of the Oktoberfest events. The band also came on board the train with us.

It is a short five minute ride thru the village as the train blows its choo-choo whistle. Many locals stood outside to wave while other onlookers lined up with their cameras to picture the train as it rolled by. We felt like celebrities.

The train ends at the dock where we board the ferry to the island. There are two islands. Herrencheimsee is 'mans' island (herren). Frauencheimsee is 'womans' island (frauen). We were going to the larger main island.

Both have a monastery. Frauenchiemsee has a nice onion styled monastery but the group decided to skip that island as it would take too much time to take a ferry there and back from the big island, then another ferry back to the mainland. Instead we would have more time to explore the main island.