We had a good breakfast, and we met an American lady who told me that she intended to visit the Chiemsee on her way to Vienna, so I asked her to join us, which she gladly did.

We took leave of our hotel people in the usual manner and found a good compartment in the train. At Prien, 56 miles out of Munich, we left our train without further ceremony.
It is a nice arrangement in this country that you can interrupt your journey at any point where the train stops, your ticket is punched as you leave the station through a gate, and you keep your ticket until you reach your destination.

You cannot cross the tracks so they have tunnels under the tracks, and you descend to them by a wide flight of stairs and ascend on the other side or on whichever track your train is standing. Signs with arrows and names of the cities show you just where to go. They are great on sign posts anyhow, and it is hard to lose yourself.

A steam tramway brought us in eight minutes to Stock, the landing place of the steamers on the Chiemsee, and, after a quarter of an hour’s ride, we were landed on the Herren-Insel, we took tickets of admission to the Schloss for which we had to pay 75¢ a person, but it is worth it.

At the Restaurant we stopped for dinner and then went through the grounds of the old castle and through the woods to the new palace called “Schloss Herrenchiemsee.” This fine palace was built in the style of Louis XIV by the crazy King Ludwig II after the model of Versailles, but not completed as his money “Gave out” (and no wonder).

In front of the west façade are ornamental water works with the basins of fortune, fame, Latona, etc. We entered a pillared vestibule, and I made an arrangement with the guide to take us by ourselves—usually they await the landing of a boat and the collections of some 20 to 25 persons.

In this manner, we had him all to ourselves and he allowed us many privileges, so that Mama could convince herself of the grandeur of things without hearing the usual “Hands off.”

In the vestibule is an enameled group of peacocks as a symbol of beauty and, from here, we entered a court paved with black and white marble, and, crossing same, we came to the magnificent staircase richly adorned with imitation marble, stucco and paintings.

Ascending this, we entered successively the Room of the Royal Guard, decorated in the blue and gold, “The Antichambre,” decorated in lilac, “The Salon de L’Oeil de Beeuf” decorated in green, with an equestrian statue of Louis XIV, and from here into the Chamber de Parade (call it the Guests Bed Chamber) an imitation of Louis XIV Bed Chamber at Versailles adorned in purple and gold with a lavishly gilded bed and most wonderful furniture and brocade curtains. The furnishing of this room alone is said to have cost $750,000.00 (gee whiz).

Royal Castle at Herrenchiemsee

Message to Miss Josephine Hunt

There were many more rooms which I cannot possibly describe. You could hear constant exclamations of delight. It was like a fairy tale or like being in an enchanted castle, and the climax was reached when we entered the “Hall of Mirrors,” 245 feet long and illuminated with 35 lusters and 2,500 candles.

The 17 high windows are covered with white curtains and, in the 17 door panels opposite to the windows, are mirrors, 30 feet high on both sides are grand candelabres, 44 of the mad of brass and heavily gilded and at least 12 feet high, in between these immense vases for the reception of orange trees. Where ever the curtain was drawn aside, the landscape, as seen through the large open window, pictured itself in the immense mirror opposite, and you may imagine the effect.

On the ceiling, beautiful paintings and in some places reliefs of cupids blending into the painting in such a manner that you could not tell which part is relief and which part is painting.

Other chambers followed, the royal Bed Chamber with a bed in which the unfortunate King slept but 23 times, the Study, Dining Room with a table which can be sunk underneath the floor, set with eatables and raised to the guests, a Bath Room large enough to be called a swimming pool, etc.

I have a book with pictures of this wonderful palace which stands here partly finished, a monument to the poor mortal who created all this without being able to enjoy it.
We strolled back to the landing and went into a “Gasthof” at Stock for our coffee and cake and back to Prien in time to catch our train for Salzburg.

Here we were received by rain, and we had to go to bed without even a glimpse of the city as the hotel is near the depot on the outskirts.