Augustusburg Palace - Fantasy land

I finally left Köln today. It rained Saturday so I stayed in my room and worked. But today on my way back to the Rhinegau (Rhine region), I decided to take a detour and visit Augustusburg Palace which is in Brühl  -  a half hour outside of Köln.  It was the home of Clemens August of Bavaria. It took 45 years to complete; but unfortunately, Clemens August only made it through the first 40. If you like palaces (the Disney-kind) you have got to see this one. It even has a moat (well not a deep one, but a moat none the less… actually is more like a small body of water that seems to surround a lot of the palace). The gardens appear to be spectacular (using my imagination of a summer scene and peeking through closed curtains!) Only the 'public reception and dining rooms' are open for viewing at this time. The bedrooms are being renovated. But not to worry, the public rooms are enough. One room is papered in tooled leather. Clemens’ hunting lodge is also open for viewing, but I did not have time to see it.

Funny thing happened… A group of Japanese tourists arrived by bus at thesame time that I did. Guided tours are included in the price of 6€, rather then wait for the next tour, I joined the Japanese tour which was going to be in English (by the German guy - I hesitate to call him a
dozent!!) and his remarks were to be translated into Japanese by the bus guide. The German kid was having quite a bit of trouble ‘dumbing down’ the description so that it could be translated (after all English was not his mother tongue). But he and the Japanese tour guide soldiered through. 

 Finally at the end of the tour, the German kid mentioned that Napoleon has visited the place and liked it so much he wrote about it in his diary.  Apparently he said that the only thing it did not have was wheels so that he could tow it back to France. The kid told the joke and then waited for a reaction.  But the Japanese woman did not understand the word ‘wheel’ in this context, so she was totally flummoxed… and the guy only had that one word for ‘wheel’.  Watching them go through a series of explanatory gestures was really quite comical.
 

Funny thing... when I told the receptionist at the hotel that I was on my way to Brühl, she responded 'Oh, Fantasyland'. I thought she was talking about the palace, so I said: 'Yes, my fantasy'.Little did I realize that fantasy land (Phantasialand)is actually a Disneyland-style an amusement park located in the same town!!

 

 

 

I would love to say I took these photos, but I did not. I found them online. Here is the web address of the guy who took them

http://www.helmut-schmidt-online.de

N.B. (IMPORTANT NOTE!!) If you plan to visit the palace in the summer, check out their summer concert series of classical music.
Pinterest: Roaming Augustusburg Palace
 

Wiki description of Augustus Burg palace

Website for Augustusburg palace