Schwetzingen Palace and Garden

Dear Family and Friends,

The doctor that repaired Chuck's hand suggested we take a day trip to Schwetzingen Palace.

The palace is located in Schwetzingen, a town about a 45 minute bus ride from Heidelberg,  and was a summer retreat from May through October.

Although the weather was cold, rainy and windy, we decided to make the trip anyway.

We walked from the bus stop, at the train station, a few blocks on tree lined streets to the palace.  We got glimpses of it before we actually arrived.

Chuck had read that tours inside the palace were available but unless we were there on the weekend, our tour would be in German only. 

When we inquired about a tour, the lady told us we were in luck because our tour guide spoke English and would include us in the tour.  We bought the tickets for about 10 euros each.  There turned out to be 3 couples on the tour.  Only one couple spoke German, the other couple besides us were from North Dakota and also spoke English.

The fellow in the red sweater was our tour guide.  Although he lives in Germany now, he is from Scotland.  His English was very easy to understand.

We did not tour the whole palace.  We only toured the apartment of Carl Theodore.  

We started with his bedroom.  As was the tradition of the day (1700's) the wallpaper and drapes were made out of the same pattern.  

Another room we saw was the room for playing cards and other games

The Ladies bedroom is below

This is the attached bedroom of her personal maid.

Below is the dining room.

This peacock thingy in the middle of the table was probably peacock pate our guide told us.

The side board shows examples of the exotic fruits and other foods that were offered here.

The tour was very interesting and lasted about an hour.  

After the tour we decided to hunt for a place to have lunch.

Although there were tons of outside eating restaurants, the weather was cold and rainy so we wanted a place to eat inside.

We found a nice place and we ordered:

Me:

Veiner Schnitzel with salad and fries.

Chuck:  Don't know the name.

But it was on a very light crust.  Topped with camembert cheese and loganberry jam.  It was yummy.

We both left stuffed and we have half the veiner schnitzel left for our train ride tomorrow.

After lunch it stopped raining so we decided to go back to the palace and tour the gardens.

The huge fountain had several statues of nymphs on swans.

I even spotted one sitting on the edge of the fountain.

So many beautiful hidden sights.  

These three babies are playing with a goat.

And..YES, we found the perfect piece of art for Chuck to pose by.

We really enjoyed our visit.  The weather held off enough so that we did not get drenched in the rain.  

We took the bus back to our hotel.

We have decided to leave Heidelberg tomorrow and travel to Dusseldorf.  We have never been there and would like to get ourselves a little closer to Amsterdam so our train ride will not be so long on Sunday.

I will take you there with us of course.

For now, we are tired babies and are going to get a good night's sleep before getting on the train in the morning.

Love,

Nancy