Nymphenburg -- King Ludwig's Birthplace

Nymphenburg was a tremendous highlight for our visits to Munich. We have visited Nymphenburg twice, and both visits are included in this photo gallery. Our first visit to Nymphenburg was on a very cold, wintery day with a fresh snowfall. The temperature was down in the teens and it was breezy, so we bundled up pretty heavily. We got some really pretty snow shots, but we definitely did not stay around outdoors very long. But when we returned that same year in the late spring, we got a chance to see the palace gardens all green and were pleasantly surprised with some of the added attractions. As we found the scene to be beautiful in its own right in both seasons, when we rewrote this chapter in 2006, we decided to include both sets of footage. Hence, using the photo gallery format.

Getting to Nymphenburg was very easy. The Nymphenburg borough was at the end of several streetcar and bus lanes running directly from the main Munich train station. The primary road nearby cut across the canal, so we got a great view of the white palace in the distance. We were surprised that even though Nymphenburg was famed as the birthplace of King Ludwig II, that fact was not made so apparent in the palace museum. Also, Nymphenburg did not employ the same restrictive access procedures (guided tours only, etc.) that the other Koenigschloesser employed. So, not only was this palace less expensive and less overrun with tourists, it was a more pleasant place to go.

The Winter Visit. We visited the palace museum. The main wing of the palace housed the royal apartments, which was the main attraction. Visitors were able to tour the first and second floors of the wing, which included bedrooms, studies, a ballroom -- the usual beautiful and lavish settings in a palace. The walls are loaded with fabulous period artwork and portraits. Particularly interesting was a couple-room display of portraits of young women that were commissioned by an earlier Bavarian king (including maidens from virtually every class of society). This scene shows the view of the front pond from the palace facade. In the background was part of the ring of former servant's residences. The spires of one of Munich's churches was visible in the background -- it did not reside on the palace grounds. Obviously, the ducks and swans were not deterred by the frigid weather.

This was a shot of the palace's north wing that hosted a separate museum of a completely different sort, natural history. As we visited on a Sunday after church, the museum was filled with families checking out the exhibits. Among them was a geological study of the region that included the story of the volcanic beginnings of a mountain ridge in modern-day Hessen. Dinosaur exhibits showed animals that inhabited Germany millions of years ago, and the anthropological exhibits were very well done -- tracing the full history of man beginning some eight million years ago. The palace grounds occupied a mere postage stamp of what they used to. The canal itself stretched along for about a mile from the palace front, ending at the small structure shown in this photograph. But whereas the canal was once the center of a much larger garden, the borough encroached on both sides along almost the entire way.

The Spring Visit. What a difference the weather made, of course. This was the palace front with the swan pond. Against a blue sky, the white palace showed up so much brighter. We must have taken a dozen photos of the front. But, since we did this part of the palace in spades during the winter, we were very anxious to get to the gardens in back. This shot was taken from the staircase at the palace rear. As the photo shows, the garden was very simple in form, green grass trimmed with color and decorated by Roman statues. The reflecting pool in the distance was about a half-kilometer away and extended another kilometer.

This was a shot of one of the statues, which showed how well it was kept up. We followed the path in the distance. It wrapped around to the right where a pavilion waited for us with a huge restaurant and ice cream cafe. It must have had several hundred customers enjoying the sunny day. This was a close-up of the rockpile in the center of the sixth photograph. This was clearly a hit with the kids, although clearly the parents were very careful not to give them too much freedom. While the surrounding sandbox would cushion the fall, I didn't see too many youngsters wearing helmets.

Winter or summer, Nymphenburg Palace was a great excursion for visits to Munich.

Other Chapters in the King Ludwig's Castles section: [ Herrenchiemsee ] [ Neuschwanstein ] [ Linderhof ] [ Hohenschwangau ] [ Nymphenburg ]

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