Today we visited the Schleißheim Palaces - they are in a suburb of Munich, so accessible via the S-Bahn (light rail service, like the O-Train in Ottawa). Unlike our previous excursions to palaces, we were allowed to take photos of the interiors of the buildings, so we have quite a few photos to share.
There are three palaces at Schleißheim - the
Old Palace, the
New Palace, and the
Lustheim Palace (which was originally built as a hunting lodge). The Old Palace was unfortunately destroyed during the Second World War, but was rebuilt/reconstructured in 1972. The New Palace, including a Baroque court garden, was completed in 1719. Four wings were originally planned, however, one one wing, the main wing, was ever built.
You can learn more about the Schleißheim Palaces at the following sites:
You can check out our photos of Schleißheim here (click on the photo below):
Today we visited the Nymphenburg Palace. There is also a huge park, and several other buildings on the grounds. As with Neuschwanstein Palace, we were not allowed to take photos inside, so you'll have to visit these sites for some interior photos:
The Nymphenburg Palace was built from 17th-19th century as a summer residence for the Bavarian Electors and Kings. Although it is now right in the city of Munich, back then, it was a country estate, outside of the city.
Again, you can click on the picture below, to see our photo album of Nymphenburg Palcace:
Labels: Munich
Today we visited
Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle built by "mad"
King Ludwig II, and was the inspiration for the
Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.
We were only allowed to take pictures of the outside of Neuschwanstein, so you'll have to visit these sites to see photos of the interior (which is just gorgeous!) Again, we used the word "wow" a lot!
We went to Neuschwanstein with an English tour company, that we can highly recommend:
Radius Tours. We hope to do some of their other tours during our time here in Munich.
The climb up to the Palace was quite the workout! The trail was quite steep in places. There were buses available (for a small charge) but most of our tour group decided to hike up. After visiting the castle, we took an alternate route down, through one of the gorges surrounding the castle. Just beautiful scenery.
We also hiked up to the
Marienbrücke, a bridge over one of the gorges, from which you have a stunning view of the castle.
Before hiking up the mountain to Neuschwanstein, we were able to take a look at the outside of
Hohenschwangau Castle where Ludwig II spent a great deal of his childhood. We didn't have time to go inside this palace, however.
You can click on the picture below to see our photos of Neuschwanstein:
Labels: Munich
Our first stop in Munich: The Residence and Treasury
Our first tourist stop in Munich was the
München Rezidenz (Residence) and Schatzkammer (Treasury). The most common word in our vocabulary seemed to be "wow". *grin*
The
Residence served as the seat of government and residence of the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings from 1508 to 1918.
The
Treasury houses a collection of jewelry, royal regalia, and many other priceless objects, that were collected by the various rulers of Bavaria. The statue of Saint George, killing the dragon, that you can see
here, was just incredible.
You can see some samples of the priceless works of art in the Treasury
here.Labels: Munich
