Germany – Schloss Nymphenburg

Schloss Nymphenburg, built in the late 17th century, was the summer palace of the kings of Bavaria. It includes castles, pavilions, stables, and a huge 200 acre Baroque/English park.

Schloss Nymphenburg

My aunt works for the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung (elegantly in English the Bavarian Administration of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes) in the Restoration Center. Her workshop is in one of the auxiliary buildings:

Restoration Workshop

We walked through the park to the Amalienburg:

Amalienburg

It is not accessible (three steps to get in the back way), but we rounded up people to carry me in. Amalianburg is a hunting lodge – we started in the opulant Rococo kennel, where the hunting dogs slept below the gun cupboards, worked our way round through through the Hall of Mirrors with its white ceiling ornamented with silvered sculptures, rooms covered with paintings of all manner of game birds and animals, and out via the kitchen, walls and ceiling completely covered with a wild variety of tile patterns.

Here my aunt left us to return to work, and my uncle and I continued through the park, past Badenburg. This little castle, as its name suggests, was dedicated to a large bath. It is also inaccessible, and we didn’t try our luck again. The park is walkable/rollable – the paths are broad and fairly flat, of small, well-packed gravel or small stones. I did find my gloves starting to shred after a couple of days on this sort of surface.

Badenburg

We stopped for lunch at the cafe at the Palmenhaus, one of several greenhouses which certainly radiated heat on a warm fall day.

Palmenhaus

Then we turned back towards the main castle (which, by the way, was extremely inaccessible), and found accessible restrooms under the palace. Our last stop in Nymphenburg was the Marstallmuseum, the former stables, housing a collection of carriages and sleighs, each gaudier than the next. Upstairs, accessible by elevator, is the museum of Bäuml porcelain. We were treated to a magnificent display of passive-aggressiveness when we asked to get up there; yes, of course, the porcelain collection is accessible by elevator; sadly, a colleague must be called to operate the elevator; oh, no, I can’t do it as I must stand here and take tickets. The colleague comes, and escorts us to the elevator. It’s necessary to be escorted because many people don’t understand how slow the elevator is (and, indeed, it is very slow), and become alarmed. Please don’t worry, I’m happy to do it, but of course my shift ends in 10 minutes and I must escort you back down. And so on. So we looked through the collection at a moderately fast clip, our shadow following us all the while, waiting for us to finish so that he could go home. Of course he didn’t go home after that – half an hour later he was still gossiping with the other employees.