By Heidi Trautmann

Bavaria, it is said, has been created on the eighth day when God was experienced enough to do his best; he gave it lovely lakes, the Alps and a people which enjoy life throughout the year.

The people of Bavaria loved their kings and dukes and princes and princesses and some of them have big fan groups still today, to keep the memory alive; for example King Louis II and his life full of wonders and unhappiness,  and Sissi, the beloved princess who became empress of Austria and Hungary.  The film Sissi with Romy Schneider went around the world, and for many she remained the fairy tale princess for the last two centuries.

In one of her castles in Feldafing, that is on the Starnberg Lake, not far from Munich, we celebrated my youngest son’s wedding. A big park with very old trees invite the guests of the hotel to walk the same paths as Sissi and her noble entourage of the court did, because she was often very tired of the life at court in Vienna and the strict ceremonial life she had to lead so she often came to see her beloved home at the Starnberg lake to see her parents and her family. Her father built this house where we had stayed in especially for her because his own became too small for all the friends she had brought with her.

We sat in the big dining room where she had dined surrounded by her paintings on the walls with a fantastic view over the lake and the mountains which glowed in the evening sun.

There are many more lakes in Bavaria just as beautiful with other castles and legends woven around them and romantic feelings are bound to happen with the swans paddling and the ducks and geese crossing.

We all sent many red hearts with wishes on postcards for the young couple into the blue white sky of Bavaria to ask the finder to send it to them and thus take part in a Bavarian Happy End.