Schwetzingen

On Sunday we went just 10 minutes southwest of Heidelberg to Schwetzingen. Schwetzingen is home to the summer estate/palace and gardens of the electoral prince Carl Theodor and his wife Elisabeth. We learned that Carl Theodor, as a ruler, was more of an artist than a fighter and hosted a large number of artists, musicians and scholars at this summer residence, including Mozart and the French philosopher Voltaire. Elisabeth, it seems, was no submissive wife and there were plenty of stories told about her as we toured the palace! The palace was kept "simple" as this was a summer, country home (I suppose it is all relative). Most of our time was spent walking through the spectacular gardens. The gardens were supposedly modeled after those of Versailles (which we did not see when we were in Paris - next time!) and were spectacular! This place is a real gem! We had a great time!

Here are some highlights....



The palace. We toured the living quarters and even got to see Elisabeth's WC! The boys got to ring the bell to call the servants. The tour was in German and we had English texts to read as we toured. We could understand some of the German after we had the context from the English text.






Most of our time was spent in the magnificant gardens. Notice the labrinths of bushes, the trees cut to make a tunnel, the flowers, the statues, fountains, ponds and many fancy buildings which seemed to represent architecture from many different parts of the world.



































The 80's band Toto was preparing to give a concert on the grounds of the gardens that night. I think Jeff would have like to have gone but we went home and listened to a Toto CD instead. It was an amazing venue for a concert!

















































The original statues had been moved inside for preservation. They were put in the Orangerie -- a greenhouse of sorts that they used to grow oranges, coffee and chocolate. Replicas of the statues were in the gardens and gave a good idea of what the gardens were like in their prime.


































We did have a moment when we wondered if we were really just standing outside of Vermeer South...