Monday May 27 -- Schloss Nymphenburg

Museums here are closed on Monday, I suppose in solidarity with the shops that close on Sunday, and rain was predicted, so I thought I would hedge my bets and head for Schloss Nymphenburg, which is the former Archduke and Elector's summer palace and family residence on what was once the outskirts of town. They say it used to take two hours for them to get here, which I guess beats moving from Moscow to St Petersburg.

I got there at 9 when the building itself was being opened. I hadn't realised that the gardens were open from 6, and since the rain was holding off I decided to have  a look around them first. They're divided in two by a big artificial canal down the middle, so I took the north side and took a few side trails. They are pretty big, and not well signposted; I wouldn't have been game to wander off without my trusty GPS at hand. As it was I took a few side trails and soon found myself confronting a chamois; about 30m away at first, calmly standing beside the trail, and moving away unhurriedly as I got closer. So add that to my wildlife list. Likewise a big eagle in the Botanic Gardens which took off somewhere close to me and wheeled around before soaring away.

I explored further and the gardens kept going; so much so that I wondered if I had crossed the canal without realising it. All very quiet and almost deserted at that time, with beech groves and streams and ponds and little stretches of open land. I came across an old church which was actually built to be a picturesque ruin, and then the gate to the Botanic Gardens.

These weren't free, and they weren't huge, but they were still worth a wander. I did a round trip. They had all the usual, and a very comprehensive collection of aquatic plants, some in the greenhouses and some outside. There were frogs in one of the ponds doing their froggy mating thing again, and this time I was able to capture it on audio; I'll post it to this blog and see if that works.

Lots of formal gardens, but the greenhouses were the most impressive section, with room after room of succulents, cacti, palms, food plants, carnivorous plants and so on. Most of them had a water feature with different fish, including some of the biggest, ugliest carp I have ever seen; one was teeming with turtles, including red-eared sliders.

There was also an 'alpine' rockery which looked just like the one in Frankfurt; winding paths and lots of heathy, shrubby plants. Plenty of tourists by now, including some that spoke English; many more than in Frankfurt. The rule in Germany now for museum exhibits and the like seems to be that signage is put up in English and German when it's replaced; but older displays are likely to be just in German.

Back in the Schloss Gardens I decided it was time to go inside; so I paid my entrance fee and went up to the first floor where the display rooms are. Not too crowded and historically quite interesting, particularly after Russia; all the jealousies and dynastic struggles that went on there seem to have been played out here as well on a much smaller canvas. Peter the Great had his erring children executed; here they just went off to a little palace somewhere and sulked for a bit. Incidentally, they don't call Ludwig II 'Mad King Ludwig' here.

After that it was definitely time for lunch, so I found a little cafe outside the park and had a coffee and strudel. I then came back to do the Carriage and Sleigh Museum, in the old stables building. The carriages were very impressive, but the horse-drawn sleighs were something new. There was even one convertible model which could be popped on to runners or lifted on to wheels, as the season demanded. Upstairs from this there was an excellent collection of porcelain, then back into the park again to have a look at some of the smaller buildings and the waterworks.

And that was quite enough. I wandered back to the U-Bahn via an ice-cream shop, and headed for home. I haven't worked out the ticketing here; unlike Frankfurt where you can buy an all-forms-of-transport ticket at any tram stop, the only source seems to be U-Bahn stations. Luckily there's one not far away. 

Stocked up on food at the local Penny supermarket, had a nice dinner, and so to bed.

Today is supposed to be rainy, so museum visits are on the cards. When it clears on Thursday I might try the bushwalk from Gauting to Sternberg.

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