Monday 18 June - Schwetzinger

Where's Bertie? He's exactly where he was last night, at the Stellplatz at Schwetzinger.
Weather: Sunny start, then clouding over but dry and very warm.

Armed with a backpack containing both elevenses and lunch, off we set to walk all the way around to the other side of the Schlossgarten (castle gardens), to their entrance. We knew nothing about the place (indeed, we didn't know about its existence until we chose to come here) but from its representation on the map, it looked to cover a considerable area and contain a lot of paths:


Well, what a place! I knew the gardens were going to be quite a size, but I expected a large chunk of it to be semi-wild. The reality is that it is a huge ornamental garden, with a significant smattering of follies (temples, a mosque and various other buildings). Later reading the Wikipedia entry, I could see where the author was coming from when they described the palace as being a modest size (in the context of palaces, I suppose; compared to, say, our house, it's ... palatial) with the gardens being completely out of proportion, such that the place should be described as the 'Schwetzingen Gardens and Palace' rather than the other way around.

With benches appearing in even greater number than sculptures and follies, it wasn't difficult to find nice spots for elevenses (overlooking a lake) and lunch (next to a fountain). Shade was required for the latter break; it was jolly hot when in the sun today.

We certainly didn't cover all of the paths, but after 3 hours of ambling around (covering over 4 miles), we felt that we had seen a bit of all of the sections. By then we had decided that the €6 entrance fee was a bargain. It would have been so for the gardens alone, but it turned out also to cover entrance to various buildings, such as the bath house, mosque and orangery, as well as a couple of information/museum rooms, where we probably would have spent a chunk more time if our German skills were up to the job of deciphering the information presented.

Below is a selection of photos of the day. Ordinarily I would add captions to give a hint as to what they show or why I've included them. However, because of how I've put this blog post together (a much quicker method than I usually use), I can't see what photos I've put in or in what order they have appeared, so please forgive the lack of info.