Munich, Germany Thursday, August 9, 2012 

Arriving at Nymphenburg

Nymphenburg Palace is on our agenda for today. This was the summer escape from Munich of the royalty in the Wittelsbach family. Their heirs still use one wing of the palace. We take a tram, a type of bus on rails which travels on the same streets as cars to get here. It was quite easy figuring out the stop and buying a ticket. We use our Bavarian Pass to get into the palace and two other indoor buildings you can see. This pass, which we bought in Wurzburg is good for two weeks and cost us 40 Euros. The attractions we have seen with it would have cost us well over 100 Euros so it was a great deal. There were many other palaces still left that were also included.

In the Gallery of Beauties

This palace was not as elegant as we were expecting. You get to see about a dozen rooms and the only things we found interesting was the room where Mad King Ludwig II was born and the Gallery of Beauties from King Ludwig I. The first King Ludwig apparently an appreciator of beautiful women regardless of social stature picked women at random and invited them to the palace for a portrait. There are 36 portraits in this room painted between 1827 and 1850, and they include royal princesses to a cobblers daughter.

The next stop was Amelienburg palace, more like a very large home, that was used as a hunting lodge by Elector Karl Albrecht and his wife Mary Amalia. The rooms are done in hunting motifs and there is a stairway leading to a perch up on the roof. The queen would go up there and dogs would be released below to flush non- flying pheasants which she would then sportingly pick off.

King Charles Coach

Last on the self guided tour was the Royal Stables Museum. This made the trip here worthwhile. There were many royal coaches, including a coronation coach from 1742, when Karl Albrecht was chosen as Emporer. This coach was pulled by eight horses, whereas kings only got six. There were also some really great old sleighs including Mad King Ludwigs. Another highlight was a royal carousel where as they went around they could try to lop off the noses from heads staged around the carousel or toss balls through a snake.
Upstairs the museum had a royal porcelain collection which was nice to look at, but not my cup of tea. Ha Ha.

Queen Carol

We toured the extensive gardens and had lunch on a bench before riding the tram back to town. We ended up at the Hofbrau house, the most famous of biergartens in town but settled for a beer sitting outside a small pub up the street where the people watching was great without the circus atmosphere.

 

Eating Happy

                                                              Afterwards, we found our way back to Opatija, where we had eaten our first night for another great sampler platter, and a huge plate of turkey cordon bleu and potato cucumber salad. It was excellent and we were stuffed for under 16 Euros plus our beer.

Crazy Goose Guy

Almost forgot to mention a bizarro happening. When walking to dinner, we observed a man on a bike with a swan in a basket. He screamed at a couple of women bikers going the other way, which caught our attention. He then stopped at the edge of a square, got off and started talking to someone. So, I just have to get a picture and as i get ready to snap crazy goose bike man starts yelling at me and covering his face. I am amused and just stare back at him while I walk to catch up to Carol, as he continues to shout at me in German. I almost was going to show him an American bird, but I refrained. Another great day in Munich even with the crazy biking bird guy.
CNC

Expenses
5E- Tram tickets
6.90E- 2 Augustiner Dunkles Beers
23.30E- Dinner and 2 beers
80E- Pension

Miles Walked – 5.6 Miles