Hohenschwangau covered by snow

And I couldn’t leave without taking a look to the 3rd castle nearby, Linderhof. It was covered by snow too, and was closed to the public, however you could still access the outside, which is nice anyway even during winter (even if of course during summer is completely different with all the flowers, etc). It was cool, a strange quiet and at same time majesty was surrounding all the place, almost an intimidating atmosphere.

We explored it for a while, remembering how was different from the summer view, and we had a good time, a feeling of peace, relax.

Linderhof’s park during winter

During the last day of our short winter holiday, we decided to randomly explore Oberammergau surroundings, it’s one of the thing I like more. No predetermined goal, no time, just our instinct: we traveled by foot, following a strange white cross that was on a hill close to the village, and we passed through a wooden bridge…

…and lastly we spotted the cross, and discovered that every year the village people make a “passion play”, a really nice Christian tradition. You can read the whole history in the official site here: www.oberammergau.de

White Cross

Since we had still a few hours left before leaving, we took a short drive and started to walk into a nearby wood (of course was all snow-covered). Once again, there was a really weird atmosphere in it, of peace and mystery together, maybe also because the sun was fading and the darkness was slowly but constantly enveloping the landscape.

We stopped at one point where there was a small river, and we could hear a distant waterfall noise, or something like that. We were too much curious to find out what was hiding behind those woods, but it was really late and almost night, so we thought that was better to get back to the car.

We swore thought to come back there one day, to find out what marvelous nature’s masterpiece was hiding in that “magic wood” of the bavarian region…

a distant waterfall noise… what was hiding in that wood?

We started our trip a few km after the village of Castelluccio, as you can see from the pictures below those are still places very green and clean, with almost no pollution. The shelter on top of the mountain is one of the few buildings you can see in the whole valley!

a panoramic view of the mountain surroundings

We made that trip a few years ago, when the heat and humidity in Bologna was unbearable. We took the car and after around 1h of driving we reached Porretta, then Castelluccio and finally we left the car to take a walk up to the top of the mountain. The path isn’t particularly hard or difficult, even if you aren’t used to walk in the mountains.

and here it is, the shelter on the top of “Monte Cavallo”

When we were almost arrived it started to rain, the classic summer thunderstorm that comes all of a suddenly, so we had to run to reach the shelter on the top. When we finally saw it in the middle of the wood, we were relieved!

We spent several minutes under the shelter’s roof, watching the rain falling all around us. It was awesome, fascinating. It was both relaxing but at same time intimidating, showing the true nature’s wrath!

Then after around 30 minutes the thunderstorm was over, and we came back to our car, with still the memory of those beautiful places in our mind.

A few km away from Parma, the Torrechiara castle’s lies on the top of a “small” hill. Surrounded by vineyards, it offers the visitors a wonderful panoramic view of the landscape. You can already spot it from distance, from the road that leads to its feet, and suddenly you feel immersed in a magic atmosphere.

Built by Pier Maria Rossi between the 1148 and 1460, with the purpose of building both a citadel and a luxurious residence, managing to accomplish both goals. It is considered the best and most visited castle of the whole Parma’s region. Those characteristics made it a perfect location for the movie “Lady Hawke”by Richard Donner.

Inside there aren’t many furnitures, mostly decorated walls/rooms, the most famous of them is the “Golden Chamber” rebuild in 1911 by Amedeo Bocchi e Daniele De Strobel. If you want to rest there during the night, you can rent a room in the “Locanda del Castello”, opened all year, which is just inside the castle walls. If instead you’re looking for a great restaurant, we recommend “Antico Mulino”, just below the castle entrance, where you can find delicious dishes!

view of the castle from below, really majestic!

the castle entrance

So, this is the first sight of the path that leads down to the lighthouse… naturally you can’t get there by car, so if you’re a bit lazy… better give up!

you can notice once again the wonderful flowers all around the sides of the path. Really amazing!

this old stone bridge is something unique. Old-looking but still robust, with small grass bushes growing here and there, it was giving to this place an almost “fantasy” atmosphere! maybe also because that day the sky was cloudy, with a grey typical of the scottish/celtic movie settings!

Once past the lighthouse, you could reach the southern extremity of the island, climbing down to the sea with this funny ladder carved into the stone that you can see in the picture above.

Another funny but really wonderful spot to do a pic-nic, or even just a moment of relax, a break from the mundane frenetic life, that seems to be so distant from the chaos you can see in the modern towns… I love that picture pastel colors!

from the wooden table you can see the lighthouse on the distance. As you can see you have to walk for some more meters to get into the “pic-nic” spot, but it is really worth it!

At last, here is a picture of the ladder that climbs down directly into the sea. That day it was really rough (even if doesn’t seem so from the picture above) and it was a bit scary honestly!

If I had to choose an emblem, a symbol for that holiday, for sure I’d pick the photo above, even if it doesn’t represent a beautiful shore, a sunset, or other. Why? because it represent the flowers and the nature, indiscussed stars of that travel. A small bunch of coloured flowers inside a vase, in front of a window enlightened from the bright daylight that comes from outside. Yes, that is the pictures that best represents that moment.

A pity I couldn’t also capture those excellent scents!