SCHWETZINGEN CASTLE - April 2014
I have been busy sewing for a couple of weeks so I haven't had time to work on the blog much.
The day after Easter was also a German holiday and some nice weather so we rode our bikes to Schwetzingen Castle about 16 miles south of Mannheim. It was a nice day for a ride and nice for the castle gardens. I did have a terrifying awful moment when some nice guy asked me to take a group photo of him and a group, which I did, and then dropped his smart phone on the cobblestones! I almost died right then and there. He was really nice tho and checked it to see if it worked, it did work, and had a small ding on a corner. I offered to pay for it if it was broke but he said it was OK. I made sure I wasn't in the same area as them for the rest of the day so I wouldn't have to face him again. I probably won't be accepting any more requests to take photos for other people from now on. The castle and gardens where really wonderful tho and I would recommend it for anyone but especially on nice weather days. This was mainly a summer home for the Prince Elector Carl Theodor. So much of the pleasure was for the outdoors and gardens. There is one English tour of the inside per day and it was very good, entertaining and interesting. Photos are not allowed inside the castle. There are small out buildings throughout the gardens separate from the castle that are fun to go through, even a garden tool museum.
more information can be found here on this link:
http://www.schloss-schwetzingen.de/en/
The bike ride down and back was mostly through farmland and bike paths. This is the beginning of the town Schwetzingen.
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| See Los Angeles is 9313 km from here. |
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| They were very big into hunting at this location so many of the statues are kind of gross, I think, of animals being killed. |
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| The manicured gardens are really interesting with all kinds of hedge shapes and mazes. |
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| The outer parts of the gardens are more natural with a small lake. It is very peaceful and it creates wonderful views and reflections. |
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| Looking back toward the castle from the other side of the lake. |
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| I can see why people who live in this town would want to own a yearly pass to enjoy these gardens whenever they wanted. |
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| Fountains and trellises are very popular and create such a cozy feeling while walking through them. |
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| Bird fountain spouts all along the top of this trellis, very intricate and interesting. |
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| Really large wisteria trellis was beautiful and in bloom. |
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| There where underground grottos which must have been a lot of fun for kids to run around in. |
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| Someone put a lot of work into making these serpentine streams out of pebbles. |
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| Inside the dome of one of the fountain buildings. |
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| Looking down from the fountain building. |
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| One of the side gates used by the gardeners. |
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| What the palace view of the gardens looks like from a window. |
The bath house that was very lush and a long way from the castle and may have been a horse ride there and back and maybe they spent the day there.
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| On the ceiling of one of the side buildings of the bath house. |
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| The ceiling of the entrance to the bath house. |
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| Around the sides of the room of the bath house. |
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| There where a few of these bath rooms with bath tubs the size of small swimming pools made of marble. That is a bench at the bottom and stair going down into the bath. |
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| This thing that looks like cloth around the bathtub is carved from stone with a skylight above. |
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| Germans like their dogs and bring them everywhere, but this couple brings their CATS! on a LEASH! Amazing. |
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| Tunnel under one of the small temples. |
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| A temple ruins in the Gardens |
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| Looking out the window of one temple ruin to a Mosque across a pond. |
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| Looking back at the temple ruin. |
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They had a Turkish mosque built but they never used it for a service, it was more of a novelty thing to say they had a mosque. |
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| Interesting little rooms around the mosque gardens |
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| From inside the mosque patio garden |
