Ludwigsburg Palace

Saturday's excursion was to Ludwigsburg! The flowers were absolutely amazing and the whole scene when you walk to the palace was beautiful! We saw the gardens in the front then walked to the side and walked through the Orangery (Naomi ran amuck in the Orangery), we looked at all the animal topiaries, and went into the aviary. The aviary had all sorts of beautiful birds; Flamingos, white stork-ish birds, baby ducks diving in the ponds, pheasants, tall black birds...etc. It was amazing! Then we saw the herb gardens with beautiful greenhouses. Then the Japanese gardens to see the bonsai's. After that we sat on a bench and ate lunch we brought and watched a bride and groom taking photos. There's a really pretty carousel that has been there since, well, I don't remember but a long time! We toured the palace and it was incredible! There were original silk curtains in the King's chamber that were all faded and tattered from age, so cool! Our stroller was suddenly very squeaky on this tour, or we just noticed it because it was really quiet :) We kept trying to creep slowly or make short bursts of speed to find the right way to stop the squeaking. Nothing worked so we just stayed at the back :) King Frederick was our favorite. He was almost 7 ft tall and almost 400 lbs!! He ate a goose and a duck for lunch, by himself!

After the interior tour we headed outside to the Fairytale Gardens and were blown away by it! We were not expected a mini Disneyland and kept running to the next spot. They had a tower where Rapunzel lived. If you stood at the bottom and yelled (in German), "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your long hair!"  A long rope of yellow hair with a red bow would lower down! How fun! Naomi thinks Rapunzel really lived there. There was a donkey that spit out an edible chocolate coin at you when you paid him 20 cents. There was a giant king that would rise out of a giant castle when you knocked on the door. There were two frog princes on a pond in the middle of a hedge maze! They would spit water at you when you crossed the pond. There were slides and goats, a train ride, a boat ride that took us through the mouth of the whale from Pinocchio, animated fairytale stories, a pond with a chair that would lift up when you sat in it and water would rise up around you and lily pads would turn over into flowers!! The flowers were blooming and smelling wonderful and the cool breeze blowing made the whole scene so magical!

We finished up the gardens and grabbed some delicious Pad Thai take-out and headed home. Our feet hurt but we had a fantastic day!




 

             

We discovered Fiona's bottom left tooth poking through as we were sitting on a bench. No wonder she's been a little cranky lately :)

Naomi is jumping like a kangaroo in between the chicken and pig topiary's. Behind her is a twig-maze that wound around to a little sitting spot. Fun little treasures like this were all over! Chris and the girls in the aviary.

            

              

               

                 

Rapunzel's hair is hanging down next to the tower. This train was so fun! It was interesting though because there were no sides or seatbelts on the train and kids were riding by themselves, they didn't make them have an adult. Also, the track ran through the park without any guards or gates over the railroad. Also, kids were running next to the train as it went through. We thought it was so interesting because in the States there would have been more safety precautions :)

                 

                

                

Rapunzel's tower from the other side of the garden. You can barely see the red from her bow hanging down next to the tower. Chris and Fiona at Favorite Place looking back at Ludwigsburg.

Naomi is such a great big sister!