Ein Tag Der Schlösser

Saturday we decided to drive further up north to see some other castles and towns of interest. First we drove to Neuburg to see the Neuburg Palace. The drive itself was fantastic. The German countryside was beautiful with its rolling hills. Fields are starting to turn from brown to a spring green all over too.

The Neuburg Palace was built from 1530-45 under Otto Henry, Elector Palatine. In 1665-70 the east wing with its two towers was added. The courtyard in the middle of the castle is covered with Sgraffito decorations (made by applying layers of contrasting tinted plaster to a damp surface), which were added there in 1562. We also found these statues of a man and woman there, though we don't know anything about them.

The museum inside the castle houses a bunch of armor, weapons, old military uniforms, artwork, tapestries, and a bunch of stuff for a small natural history section. The tapestries included a large collection of ecclesiastical textiles from the Ursuline Monastery of Neuburg that were embroidered by the Ursuline nuns during the 1700s.

I enjoyed seeing the artwork. There were pieces by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthonis van Dyck and Jan Brueghel among others. We thought this picture of a really fat man was kind of funny, so Nate took a picture with his ipod. Then we were informed that pictures weren't allowed of the artwork, so we didn't take any more.

After touring the inside of the castle, we went in search for a good place to view the castle from the outside.

There were some stretches of walkway along the river, and as we walked along them I spotted this odd sign attached to a watermill. I am not sure what it is for or what it means. It says, "and and and."

The view from the castle was best just around the bend of the river. The yellow tower to the far right of the picture is the tower of the Palatine Chapel, the first Protestant church in Bavaria. Apparently the interior of the church is painted with frescoes by the famous Salzburg church painter Hans Bocksberger the Elder, but unfortunately we didn't have time to go inside.

After eating lunch, we headed to Eichstätt to see the Willibaldsburg Castle. I am really glad we went here, because this castle was just cool to see. It was built around 1355. Around 1600 under the reign of Prince-Bishop Johann Conrad von Gemmingen, onion domes were placed over the two towers. Obviously, these are no longer there. However, Gemmingen did create a famous botanical garden that was replicated and reopened in 1998 with the same plants that were there originally. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything really to see there at this time of year.

While there, we checked out the super deep well inside the castle.

 And climbed the spiral stairs to the top of one of the towers. Here are some views from the top:

 

Willibaldsburg Caste Courtyard

There was also another natural history museum here. The Germans seem to really like housing their natural history museums inside castles. They did have some cool fish there that we spotted in aquariums that we looked at, but other than that we didn't explore the natural history stuff. After seeing the inside of the castle, we headed out around the perimeter.

You can see the photosynth picture of the entrance area we took here. 

Then we headed down the hill for a full view.

There were a number of trails around the castle and some other trails around the hills that I would have loved to explore more, but we didn't have time since we also wanted to visit Ingolstadte. Still, by the time we reached Ingolstadte, it was after 4:00, and thus all the historic places of interest were closed. We still wandered around the old town area though.

The Liebfrauenmünster is one of the largest Gothic brick buildings in Bavaria.

Liebfrauenmünster

The city walls and semicircular tower gates were built from 1362 to 1440. Of the original four towers, only the western one, the Kreuztor, remains.

The Kreuztor

 As we walked through the old town area, we came upon some sort of festival. There were a few booths there, including one selling amazingly scrumptious looking goodies. We decided to get ourselves a skewer of chocolate covered strawberries, and it was well worth it. The strawberries tasted so fresh and flavorful, and they were absolutely delicious covered in rich chocolate!

Meanwhile, Austin had a blast playing in a bounce house filled with balls.

Last we went by the Neues Schloss before searching out a place to eat dinner and heading home.

Neues Schloss