Sunday morning, Feb. 11, we decided to do one more big day of sightseeing. ONe place that was on my Germany "bucket list" for this trip was Ludwigsburg Palace. A good friend of mine is from not far from there, and she and her husband had stunning formal wedding pictures taken in the palace. I had seen the pictures, and I really wanted to see the palace in person!
It is about 2 hours from Wiesbaden. Once we got into the town, we had a bit of trouble finding a good parking garage, so we had to turn around. Then we missed another turn, so we sort of took the scenic route around the palace, lol. Eventually we found the parking garage. Incidentally, both this parking garage, and the one in Trier, had a public restroom right there, which was so convenient for those of us traveling with people with little bladders! I had been worried before we got to Germany that we would never be able to find restrooms, but that fortunately did not turn out to be the case!
Here we all are in front of the palace gates. Bob flagged down a random stranger to take this picture, which was mortifyingly embarrassing to the teen/tween portion of the family. But we wanted at least one picture with all of us! You can barely see Drew though--just his Minion eyes, lol.
We got there with just a few minutes to spare before the English tour. I had looked at the website earlier to find out the times, which was very convenient. But then it took a little bit for the guide to get there, so we really didn't need to rush. Again, the palace gave us the family rate, even though we definitely had more than 4 kids!
This is a picture down the hallway where we were waiting. Once the tour started, we couldn't take any pictures inside the palace. Our tour guide, Martina, spoke excellent English, and she was funny! She thoroughly knew the palace and the history, as well as lots of extra little fun tidbits, so it was a really interesting tour. Bob's back was really hurting by this time, but what we found in several tourist attractions is they have these little folding chairs that you can just bring with you. They fold up much smaller than what we think of as folding chairs, and are much easier to carry. So Bob carried one of those around, and he just sat whenever we stopped for awhile in one room.
For just a brief history, the palace was originally built as a hunting lodge back in the 1600's before getting razed by French forces. Then Duke Eberhard Ludwig wanted to rebuild it in the early 1700's in the style of Versailles. He had a rather scandalous life, leaving his wife back in Stuttgart and installing his long-time mistress at this palace. But his legitimate son died, and so he needed to reconcile with his wife and try for another son, so the mistress was kicked out. But alas, the wife was in her 50's, so nothing happened, and a Catholic nephew became the duke. Eventually King Frederick of Wuerrtemburg and his wife, Queen Charlotte, used it as a summer residence.
You can see the wall coverings and furnishings, pretty much just as they were back in the 1700's, when Frederick was living there, which is amazing. The contrast between those rooms, and those of the servants, was quite striking. The had the room in the inside of the palace, with no windows and really low ceilings (two rooms on top of each other in the space of one royal room!) The chapel and the ballroom were probably my favorite rooms. The palace was SO cold though--no wonder it was just used as a summer residence by the king and queen!
The little kids were amazingly well-behaved on this tour, and we got several comments about them. That was a big relief, because it was a large tour group, and if they had been fussy, it would have been hard for anyone else to hear the guide! The kids must have been awed by either the cold or all the lavishness, lol. Fortunately the stories of romantic entanglements and parties of the various residents went right over their heads!
More pictures of the outside from the courtyard, where we could take pictures.
I'm sure this is a very stunning fountain in the summer when it is turned on!
This is the oldest wing.
The place where we met the tour group was in that portico and up the stairs.
The outside of the palace from the garden, which we didn't take time to look through because it was cold, and Bob's back was really hurting.
After we got back to the car, we had another quick lunch in the parking garage of lunch meat/cheese on brotchen. Then we headed down to Stuttgart to visit an old friend whose husband is stationed there. It took less than 30 minutes to get there, and we didn't make any wrong turns!
Verity was thrilled that Lisa and Ramey have a daughter the same age as her! Her name is Anna Claire, which is neat because that is exactly what our Anna's name is! They ordered tons of pizza, which we all enjoyed.
They live on post, on the 4th floor. I know all those steps get annoying, but they had a beautiful, light-filled 4-bedroom apartment! We really enjoyed catching up with them.
Later we played a really fun game called Telestrations. It's sort of a combination of "telephone" and pictionary. You can play with up to 12 people, and everyone picks a word off their card. Then they draw a picture to represent that word and then pass the book to the next person. They look at your picture and write the word they think you are drawing. Then they pass the book to the next person, who draws a picture of that book. By the time all the books get back to their original owner, the pictures/words have morphed hilariously! We all laughed so hard!
Micah and Drew had a great time with their youngest son Zach and all his toys! It was really a great evening for all of us. We didn't want to leave, but we had to drive back to Wiesbaden! Fortunately it only took us 2 hours on good Autobahn roads, so it was an easy drive.
I was so glad we got to visit them! Lisa and I go way back to 1984. Both sets of our parents went to the AMCF World Conference in Seoul, Korea, that year, so we met in the kids' program. Then Lisa and I were on summer support staff at White Sulphur Springs during high school, which was tons of fun. I think the thing I like best about facebook is being able to keep in touch with friends from way back, whom we have never really lived anywhere near. Then, on the rare occasions when we do meet in person--it's like we had just seen each other yesterday! So fun! Military friendships are a real blessing!
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