The Chiemsee Palace gardens have a serious of fountains that put on a show at 15 min intervals. It was nice watching for a while killing time before our designated meeting time.The gardens were also manicured and had an extended tunnel like view looking back to the mainland.Walking over to the monastery which was the old palace, it was an interesting museum with lots of wall art.The top floor had a room where a treaty was signed along with the palace main hall.Th...

Next up was our tour of Chiemsee Palace. No pics were allowed so I had to use my hands behind back method so lots of ceilings.For all its grandeur Ludwig wanted to spend time alone without courtiers. His only companion was the composer Wagner who he had a bit of a bromance with. Wagner played along for his patronage.The palace was modelled on Versailles but only partially completed. There is also a pulley system for raising and lowering the chandaliers in the gra...

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 wh...

Upon arrival in Munich today was mostly rest and freetime before the day trips begin tomorrow. First thing I wanted to do was goto the Residenz Palace in the town centre to buy a castle pass.You can buy a 14 day Bavaria Castle Pass for 24 Euros ($36) which pays for itself after three castles or palaces. http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/englisc h/palace/objects/jahresk.htm. I would cover this very easily planning to goto five places during my stay. There is also a ...

Arriving at the airport I routinely weight my bag as some airlines or staffers are getting tougher on hand luggage. My bag was only 7.5kg while the allowance was 10kg.After passing thru security there was a booth for CIBC bank getting Canadians to enroll for their air miles card. At first I tried to say no thanks and walk away.Just before this trip when I called my bank to give them a travel notification they persuaded me to upgrade my card and get 25,000 bonus s...