Nymphenburg Palace was the summer residence of Bavaria’s rulers, the Wittelsbacher family. The gardens, which are largely woodlands, are enormous and contain, in fact, five palaces, one big one and four teensy ones. Well worth a visit if you happen to be in Munich with an afternoon to spare and a hankering for a dose of nature.
I had a delicious plum crumble, but wolfed it down too fast to take a photo…
Toledo is stuffed to the rafters with treasures that no ordinary pleb has been allowed to set eyes on in hundreds of years. Recently, the tumble-down Colegio de Infantes (a boy’s school) was renovated and reopened as a museum of ancient tapestries and textiles that had been rotting away in one of the Cathedral’s cellars.
I shall spare you the tapestries and ecclesiastical garments, but have a look at this:
Looks like a painting at first glance, doesn’t it? But it’s just a view of the city through the panoramic window of one of the building’s staircases:
Religious art isn’t really my thing, but…
…have you ever seen those two look quite so heartwarmingly content??
The building’s entrance
For the most stunning view of Toledo through a window, click here.
This is my last batch of London pictures from last week’s trip. You can pat yourselves on the back, you’ve held up most valiantly. Thanks for indulging me in my nostalgic reveries…
I wont torture you with tedious explanations – I’m sure each and every one of you has a tourist tat dust catcher of at least one of these landmarks on their mantlepiece.
And a few shots from the hill in Greenwich Park:
— THE END —
* Phew! *
Last Wednesday, mum and I took a trip to Regensburg, another very old and splendid Bavarian town. Things didn’t look very promising when we set off. According to the weather forecast, Regensburg would live up to its name: “Regen” means “rain” in German. (Regen is also the name of a river that flows through the town, which is how it got its name).
In the end, the weather wasn’t too bad, although you’ll notice a distinct lack of blue sky in the photos.
The flowers held up pretty well
Perfect weather for snails 🙂
…and man-eating fish
Time for a food break 🙂 Question: What do you do when you can’t decide which kind of sausage to have..?
Answer: You order them ALL! On a skewer, so they can’t get away.
“Sauerbraten” – Beef (which has been marinated overnight), potato dumplings and red cabbage. It’s a traditional Bavarian dish, and this incarnation was just PERFECT.
A pretty café
Love the daisies 🙂
Regensburg’s Gothic Cathedral is world famous. You can’t miss the spires poking out from behind the town houses. I didn’t like it much from the inside, far too dark and dingy, although the painted glass windows are amazing, admittedly.
These next few pictures are from the Church of St Emmeram, which looks fairly unassuming from the outside.
From the inside, however…!
Painted wooden ceiling, which came out very dark, so I lightened it and enhanced the colours slightly.
Acupuncture – already popular in the dark ages…
OK, that’s it.
Wait… something’s missing… what could that be…? Oh oh, I remember – CAKE!
Poppy seed strudel!!!
Actually, I scoffed that before we ever got to Regensburg. Due to a 5-minute delay in our train connection, we saw our train pull out of the station just as we arrived. So we consoled ourselves with coffee & cake while waiting for the next one 🙂
Yesterday, I posted a bunch of pictures of the beautiful Bavarian city of Landshut (click here if you’ve missed them), so most of you will already be well prepared for what’s coming today: We’re schlepping up the hill to gawp at (and down from) the castle, Burg Trausnitz.
This thing was built in 1204. The Wittelsbach dynasty, which ruled Bavaria for hundreds of years, had its main seat in Landshut for a while, so Castle Trausnitz was ramshackle full of medieval splendour, art and culture. “Was” is the operative word here, because, unfortunately, there was a fire in 1961, which destroyed most of the building and its contents. Cause: faulty electrical wiring. Oh, the (sad) irony…
Anyway, the (rebuilt) place is still pretty impressive, and makes a worthy entry for travelwithintent’s weekly Look Up, Look Down photo challenge 🙂
We took a guided tour. Although the rooms were relatively bare (except for the chapel), there were some pretty pieces on show. We weren’t allowed to take photos, but I managed this sneaky shot of the “Narrentreppe” (staircase of fools).
The Martinskirche through a Trausnitz Castle window.
The Martinskirche steeple is Bavaria’s highest church steeple.
On Tuesday, mum and I made another foray into Lower Bavaria. This time our destination was the splendid city of Landshut, 50 minutes east of Munich by train.
Landshut was founded in 1204. It was a seat of government, before Bavaria was eventually united and Munich became the official capital.
Apparently, Landshut is one of Bavaria’s richest cities. And it certainly is very pretty. I’ll let the pics do the talking…
You were waiting for that cake break, weren’t you…?! 😉
Mum had the strawberry cake, and I the Mohnschnecke. I guess you’d call it a poppy seed Danish. BTW, I RESENT having to call this heavenly family of baked goods “Danish(es)”, because they are very much a Central European thing and have nothing whatsoever to do with bloody Denmark!
The Martinskirche on the left there, sports Bavaria’s highest church steeple, and the highest red brick steeple in the world, at just over 130 metres tall. Building works commenced in 1385. And I Iove the cyclist in the stripey T-shirt balancing his parcel… 😉
Inside the Martinskirche
One of the entrance doors (interior view)
In an upcoming post, we’ll be visiting the castle 🙂
The building where I live is right in front of the convent of Santa Clara (founded in 1369), but I can’t actually see it from my own windows. I’m watering friends’ plants this week, so I took a shot of the convent this morning from their balcony.
On Sunday, I ventured inside the convent walls on a free guided tour. They didn’t show us much, just the church part and a couple of pretty interior patios. We were not allowed to take photos, and no access was granted to the archives, art collections or other much more interesting parts of this vast medieval building complex.
Santa Clara is home to just three resident nuns, the youngest of whom is 82. It’s pretty much the same story in all of Toledo’s convents and monasteries, of which there are dozens. In a decade from now, there is going to be nobody left, and what will happen to these properties and their hidden treasures then…?
Cool Door. Held open by my friend Catalina.
Saturday’s totally delicious dinner of tuna and stir fried vegetables in a new restaurant/bar just five minutes from my house. I can’t wait to have this again 🙂
A couple of months back, when my friend Noelia and I spent the weekend in Salamanca visiting friends, we trudged all the way up to the top of Salamanca cathedral. The neverending and, at times, devilishly narrow staircases were regulated by a traffic light system to avoid collisions. To my great surprise, everybody seemed to heed the green and red lights. Which proves that the Spanish can follow rules after all 😉
I thought these pics would make the perfect contribution to travelwithintent’s weekly Look Up Look Down photo challenge.
View of Salamanca from the top of the cathedral
View of Salamanca cathedral from the Roman Bridge
The Tolmo Museum in Toledo, just three minutes walking distance from my house, opened its doors to the public in October 2013. I love the eclectic “chronological mix”, spanning two millennia: The building, a beautiful medieval church, houses a modern art exhibition and there’s remnants of Roman baths in the basement, which can also be viewed.
Part of the door frame (front portal).
One of the exhibits
I thought that La Casa De Las Conchas (House Of The Shells), a 15-th century gothic building in the centre of Salamanca, would make a nice entry for travelwithintent’s Look Up Look Down weekly photo challenge.
Looking up at the shells… the building’s facade is decorated with 350 of these.
Looking up from Shell House’s interior patio, you can see the ornate towers of Salamanca Cathedral
Looking down one of the beautifully carved banisters
Lady Of The Cakes 