The Wittelsbach family ruled Bavaria for about 200 years from the mid 1600's to the 1800's, and Nymphenburg Palace was their summer escape from Munich. Of course, Munich has grown out to meet it now, so it is only about 15 minutes from downtown and surrounded by apartments,shops, and businesses. Each generation added to the palace and it has hundreds of rooms, beautiful gardens, many outbuildings, and the family still lives in one wing.
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| Nymphenburg Palace - actually just a small portion as it is much too big for one photo. |
We were able to visit only 20 rooms in the Palace, and the Great Hall was the most impressive - bright, beautiful, and seems to bring the front and rear gardens inside.
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| Rococo design and site of Wittelsbach family festivals |
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| The ceiling showing a heavenly host of Olympian Gods |
Since we'll be here for six months, we decided to buy the Annual German Castles Pass that will allow us to visit many castles, so we will return another day to explore the gardens, museum, and porcelain factory.
A couple more Munich observations...
Munich is very bicycle friendly, just as we found in Copenhagen. There is the street traffic areas for cars, then a bicycle lane for the Rads, and then the pedestrian sidewalk. We found out quickly to stay on the sidewalk and not in the Bike lane, so as to not get run over. A picture follows:
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| Bike lane(narrow) and pedestrian lane at street crossing |
Hi Gary and Denise,
ReplyDeleteThis is Julie - Simone's friend from Belgium who stayed with the Walshed some 15 years ago. Too bad you couldn't make it to Konstanz yesterday, we had a fun evening and I would have loved to see you again. If you'd like to stay in touch, mail me: julie@runnerjules.com (yes, believe it or not, I turned into a marathon runner and am about half the size I used to be). I would love to hear from you and maybe see you some time if ever you decide to travel to Belgium... Take care. Julie
Hi Julie,
DeleteIt was so nice to hear from and you, and we wish we could have gotten to Constance last week, but the timing just didn't work out. I hope you had a wonderful visit with Simone and a relaxing vacation. I'm so impressed you are a marathon runner. Lisa was running half marathons until she got pregnant, and now with twins there is just no time.
Yes, let's keep in touch! My email is denise_gary@comcast.net. Take care!
Denise
Great posts! Keep it up-- we're enjoying them. All is well here-- we did our trip to the southeast, during which Dotty interviewed by phone and was hired as a consultant to Daimler Trucks North America. She'll lead a team to update their manufacturing software; today is her first day. I went to mow yesterday; had a bit of trouble in that the battery was dead, but I charged it up and got 'er done. Will check the mower again later this week to see if it is holding a charge, but no worries, we'll make it work. We had a record-tying 15 straight dry days, and the rain came back last night. -- Michael
ReplyDeleteThe palace hasn't changed a bit since we visited it with the kids in 1978. I'm always overwhelmed by the splendor in these buildings, and can't help wondering how much that money could have benefited the population. It's fun to see how the other half lived, though.
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