Schloss Nymphenburg

Last week, I visited another castle. I sense that this will probably be a pattern in my life here in Europe, because there are a ton of castles I hope to see while I am here. This particular one, Schloss Nymphenburg is right here in Munich. It was built in the late 1600s as a summer palace for the royals, and at the time was a bit outside of the city that has now been built up around it. The grounds were beautiful, especially with the fall colors and the huge expanse of public gardens the castle boasts. We paid to take a tour of the inside and passes on the audio tour (mistake). The inside was preserved well and however small, it was an interesting look into the lives of the Wittelsbachs and the German royalty.

My favorite part was definitely the Gallery of Beauties. Commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, it contains paintings of 36 women from all social classes of Munich. King Ludwig would hold a sort of competition to find the most beautiful woman in Munich, and would then invite her to the palace to have her picture painted. The paintings were displayed in the city and open to the public's viewing before a fire that had them all moved into the palace. It's pretty funny to me that this Gallery of Beauties is in the Queen's pavilion of the castle. One of the paintings is even of Ludwig's infamous mistress. Ouch.

Barcelona Part 1

It may have taken me a month and a half but I am finally sharing my photos from my Barcelona trip in mid September. I loved Barcelona, it was truly unlike any city I have visited before. It has such a vibrant and lively air. There are all different kinds of people, blends of architecture and something to be had by all for shopping, eating, drinking, you name it. I loved the idea of a big city on the water that had warm sandy beaches you can walk to - my kind of place. Our trip ended a little strangely, but that was largely a result of heavy partying (Barcelona goes pretty hard at night time) and still trying to pack in all of the daytime sights. I definitely plan to go back, because even though I felt I saw many of the sights there were tons I missed. Particularly Parc Guell (so bummed I missed that one, but it's a great excuse to return)!

I took a large amount of photos and tried to slim them down for this post, also breaking it up into two posts with my photos of Sagrada Famlia to follow. That cathedral really took my breath away. Here is a healthy look at what we saw in Barca. :)