Nymphenburg palace & Munich

Originally we had planned that John would work in Munich for a week, since his company has an office there, but it did not work out. So somehow we just got one Munich day and decided to go to the Nymphenburger castle, because I just love it. Sophie was delighted with excitedment to ride trains, subways, trolleys and buses again.


Nymphenburg castle - not unlike other spots during this vacation - comes with a story of my past. In 1990 a friend of mine, Max and I had thought it might be fun to spend a weekend in Munich. Being students we could not afford a room, so we decided to leave early Saturday and come back Sunday night. We figured we could just sleep in the car for one night and that it would be a fun adventure. If you sleep in a small and uncomfortable car already, at least pick one of the most beautiful spots with a pretty view and therefore we parked in front of the Nympenburg palace. It was very romantic, except that we were not romantically involved at all, so don’t let your mind go there, all we had were heady, intellectual discussions. In the morning when I woke up all sore and not very rested, I noticed that there was a line of 5 tourist buses next to us. I looked up and to my shock and surprise, saw a whole group of Japanese tourists glued to the bus window taking pictures of us, how bizarre. Actually, that is probably what they thought of us.


The baroque Nymphenburg palace - comissioned in 1664 - was the summer residence of the Bavarian rulers and crazy King Ludwig II was born there in 1845. I have always loved the park for walks, admittedly more in the fall, when you have less tourists and beautiful light and foliage. The 490 acre big park was an Italian garden at first and then changed into an English Garden in the 19th century. I think what appeals to me is the big open space, there is so much sky, so much air to breathe.


The girls and I strolled towards and then through the castle and had a lovely picnic in the shade, overlooking the statues and watching the tourists., trying to figure out which statue was which Greek god/godess. Whenever I see people taking pictures of each other, I offer to take one of them together and I was very busy with that. It is kind of funny to think about all the pictures I have taken for people over the years. It is almost turning into a kind of sport for me.


13 years ago I had found a great dealer of leather material and had been wanting to go back since then, but it just was not very convenient living on a different continent. So this was the day. The kids were awesome, they were not only patient, they loved the huge halls with all the rolled up skins, they invented games and showed me some pieces they loved. When Johanna told me she would love to stay there inbetween all the cool leather for a week, I was very happy, the apple does not fall far from the tree (ir the mom :))


The second store where we were supposed to get all the hardware had moved, so that was a bust and we went to Munich’s famous market, the Viktualienmarkt, instead. By then we were so tired and hot and it was so crowded, we just looked for place to sit and drink some Bionade - Johanna’s favorite drink, a kind of alternative and healthy soda. We even took an earlier train home, not that we wanted to waste Munich time, but we were too beat.


We had planned to visit the English Gardens for a pretzel at the Chinese tower. Three years ago when we went, the moment we wanted to have dinner, the clouds opened up and dumped a torrent of rain and spoiled our chances to get anything and we had to go back to the hotel. This year we were determined, but one can imagine how hot and exhausted we were, when we all decided to skip it yet again and go home earlier instead. If three times is the charm, our next visit to Bavaria will have to have the English Gardens and the Neuschwanstein Castle!