Germany – Munich –June 1st

After having breakfast and checking out of our gastof we headed back to Munich – not the main square this time.  We went to Nymphenburg Palace which was just incredible!  We stayed there for about 2 hours and saw so many beautiful things.

I guess you could consider this the "country" palace...just a little outside of Munich

Kenneth by the fountain...which is not on unfortunately

Beautiful!

 The main meeting room of the palace...stunning!

Paintings in the "Room of Beautiful Women" - 

The Queen's bedroom - busts of her sons, Ledwig II & Otto on the left side

All of the rooms were spectacular!   

Ornate carriage

King Ledwig II's sleigh

King Ledwig II's insanely ornate coronation carriage

Kenneth next to the coronation carriage

Jingle bells!

King Ledwig II's favorite horse

 On the grounds there were 4 smaller structures.  This one here was a summer estate for a queen.  I think it is sillly that she needed to have her own place just a half mile from the main palace!

I love how the bed was set into the wall with the curtains.  So pretty!  

The sitting room

 The beautiful grounds:

The second estate - this is a picture of the huge bath set in the basement.

The back side liked with sculptures

 The third estate:

In case you get tired while you're walking around the gardens - take a nap!

 Lastly was the Magdelenen Klause - it was a beautiful church which was built to look like it was a ruin.  The inside was beautiful and very intricate.  Everything was decorated with sand, shells and stones.

Next we headed into Munich and saw the royal treasury at the Royal Residence.  It was jaw dropping!  The pictures don’t do any justice!

Old crowns - it was interesting to see them with raw gems that weren't polished - still beautiful. 

Kenneth was a fan of the swords!  He's always wanted one!

This case was absolutely beautiful!  It sparkled SO much, you just can't tell at all from the pictures :(

When you walked by this case (and a second one just like it), at first you couldn't even tell what they were because you were blinded by the lights bouncing off of all the gemstones.  Again, unfortunately the pictures just don't do it justice.

Next we headed to the Royal Residence in the main part of the city.  It was incredible.  I would never have thought it was so huge! It just looks like normal buildings – but they are actually all connected and make just a massive palace. 

Inner courtyard

Outdoor chapel

Main room where events would take place

Music room

These tapestries are so detailed - I have no idea how they are accomplished!

Beautiful ceilings

Holy relic 

Another holy relic...and head - YIKES!

Pretty ceiling in indoor chapel

I loved the little organ

Beautiful hamily history room with paintings of the various family members

We picked a restaurant called “Enchiladas” for dinner, and were really excited to have some Mexican food – which we LOVE!  However, once we got our food we were a little surprised.  A “vegetarian” enchilada we just assumed must be cheese right?  No, no…it actually had green beans and spinach in it.  Very interesting.  Then, another one had chili inside of it…and another had nacho cheese sauce in it.  Very, very different than the enchiladas in the U.S.! 

After our disappointing dinner (we were really anxious for a normal dinner) we drove to the airport and stayed in the airport’s Holiday Inn.  While there we had our first internet service since coming to Germany.  Thus far, we had only communicated with my parents via texts.  We heard from friend’s who went on long trips that their kids did fine UNTIL they called and they were pointedly reminded that mom and dad weren’t there.  So, needless to say, we checked that they were doing fine, but did not actually talk to them for the entire trip.  At the hotel though, I had 2 emails from my step-mom which were written from Danny’s viewpoint.  It was so incredibly cute.  I am glad we didn’t’ have internet service before, because I would have gone crazy missing them and wouldn’t have enjoyed myself nearly as much.  I definitely cried reading about all that the kids were doing.  I was so happy to be leaving the next day and to hurry back to them!

The flight home was uneventful.  Luckily Kenneth and I had our first flight to Philadelphia together, then Kenneth continued to Los Angeles, and I flew to Sacramento.  For our first time (at least together) in Philadelphia we had a great philly cheese steak sandwich.  It was delicious!  Once I got to Sacramento, I saw my brother Nathan (who works there) and my stepmom Jayne picked me up with the kids in the car.  When I saw Danny he gave me the saddest look ever!!  It made me want to cry!  It took him a few minutes to finally "warm up" to me enough to start talking to me again.  We slept that evening in Sacramento, and then we drove back home the following day and finally had the whole family together again!  It was an absolutely phenomenal trip, and I am so grateful to my Pa A and Jayne for watching the kids!  A trip for just Kenneth and I was so fantastic!  I was so happy with everything that we did in Germany.  We had so much fun seeing both touristy and every-day things.  I never felt a big push to go to Germany, but after going and experiencing it, I would be more than happy to go back again some day!