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
Wiki description of Augustus Burg palace
Website for Augustusburg palace
