Pretty as a Picture
A visit to Nymphenburg Palace
I‘d figured out from day one that everything in Munich is on a large scale, but nothing prepared me for the scale of Nymphenburg Palace. The Oldies are slow at the best of times, but even they needed two full days to get around the palace and grounds, and they still didn’t get to see it all.
The Wingless Wonders spent the first day alone simply walking around the palace park. This has to be seen to be believed. There are numerous pavilions in the grounds, including a hunting lodge and a bathing house with an ornate, indoor swimming pool. Luxury all the way!
Her Ladyship, however, was more interested in the baroque pump house than all those elaborate villas and lodges. The original wooden pump mechanism which operates the palace fountains was replaced with metal workings over two hundred years ago and has been in operation ever since. This apparently makes it the oldest continually working machine in Europe. That’s a pretty nifty piece of engineering! Given a choice, though, I’d still go for that indoor swimming pool…
When travelling, they say you should do what the locals do, but His Lordship took this bit of advice a little too literally!
There were some more interesting pieces of equipment in the Marstall Coach Museum which is in just one of the many annexes of the palace. This collection must be the ancient equivalent of those super duper cars we had seen at BMW Museum and BMW World. Mad vehicles with all the bells and whistles – in this case, literally. But to me, they looked like giant prams – for spoilt, overgrown kids perhaps. The royals not only had fleets of coaches, but fleets of sledges into the bargain.
The pièce de résistance was this coronation coach – an eight horsepower vehicle! Powerful for the time, I suppose.
In the same building, there is a museum dedicated to Nymphenburg Porcelain. I found parts of the collection quite stunning, especially the beautifully crafted bird ornaments and the delicate flowers and insects atop vases and tureens. Some items were rather over the top, though. But I had no problem in choosing my favourite pieces: this wonderful fishy dinnerware. Even empty, these plates whet my appetite!
The Dynamic Duo eventually got around to visiting the palace itself. I’ve seen many a dark and gloomy castle in my time, but I have to say that this interior was a cheery sight. The characters on the ceiling paintings in the Great Hall are an upbeat lot, and I don’t think I’d ever seen a rainbow in decor of this vintage before. I found it all very Disney-esque. All it needed was the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow to complete the picture….
Hah, I wasn’t far off in my interpretation of the Disney-esque nature of the decor. It turns out that King Ludwig II was born here. He’s the guy who went on to build those famous fairy tale castles, the best known being Neuschwanstein Castle. You know, the one that was the inspiration for the Disney Cinderella Castle. I suspect some of his coaches would suit a Cinderella too.
I’ve often thought that portrait artists of old must surely have been tempted to enhance the features of the often rather, let’s say, facially challenged aristocrats they were commissioned to paint. The ancient equivalent of photoshopping, if you like.
Thankfully, the Gallery of the Beauties, commissioned by King Ludwig I, is one of those rare portrait galleries full of genuinely good-looking women. And another other rare feature: the 36 women were from all sections of society, chosen purely for their beauty. Probably not very ‘woke’ in today’s terms, but it is refreshing, all the same, to find portraits that are easy on the eye.
Pity about the ‘Beast’ amongst them!
