Ludwigsburg Palace

 So - we're NOT looking at the camera because we're having dueling selfies here... he was trying to get his phone up in front of mine and get the selfie - ha!

OK, you'll see this map a few times during this narative... the first set of gardens we entered were to the south of the palace - but on THIS map it's to the top of the map - we parked down quite a way from here as it was inexpensive and we had NO idea how far we would need to walk to get there!  (as you can see in the selfies above as we had already walked a block on the way TO the palace...

From Google Maps - we parked where the circle is then walked to where the X is to take the selfie.  Then we walked all the way up and to the right all the way up to the top of the map to the to the maze looking place on the top left.

 The bottom geometric shapes were box hedges, fountains and mazes.  and ROSES... lot of roses....

This is the view of the gardens from the steps of the palace.  NOW the issue is this is a construction zone... they are working on the exterior of the palace and right now the kings wing.  The tour guide indicated that they would not be done until 2023 - so after we're gone, so no real chance to get a picture of the palace without the scaffolding.  :(

So - we'll just borrow this from the web and put it right here...

 This statue just made me giggle... isn't that like siblings there?  LOL

 Beautiful gates right at the base of the palace - at the fairy gardens area.... beautiful

 cute garden tucked away on the west side of the palace... #4 on the map

 gotta love the lichens and mosses around the rock works

 Where statues go to die?  Not really, looks like a storage area just inside the west courtyard of the palace. Not sure why they are there, but looks to be a staging around to store them while the area they are from is worked on/restored? *courtyard at spot 33

 Map again... as we head into the East Garden gates - just to the south of the map..aka where the red dot is!

 We kept turning right and walking through the smaller gardens instead of the main paths - saw a lot of neat flowers and small gardens tucked into the shaded areas.

 Entering the enclosed garden at #28 - they had egrets and other nesting birds that appear to be from warmer climates... and probably brought in during the winter.

 Item 25

 Item 28

 overlooking the gardens from Rapunzel's castle.

 There's fish in there!!!

 and a secret exit... down, down, down....

 But first a few more pictures!!

Then into the kiddie park!!

 Kiddie boat ride - see the video on facebook - it's hilarious!!!  It's at item 18

 Standing at.... hum...at spot #10 on the map - looking across the large road... note the deer and does in the shot... we didn't make it all the way over there to see where this went or what that building is - not even sure if it was included in the ticket(s) we bought...

 RIOT of color in the beds at the fountains at spot #8

 Meet Jerome - he is a professional sand sculpture.  Really - there is such a thing!  We had a nice long discussion with him regarding all of the sculptures that will be done from now until the 6th when they had a huge celebration with fireworks.  He is the art director for this event.  He also told us about the pumpkin carving contests they have going on as well.  Fun discussions with him!  The current goal for us is to get garden tickets on that day, bring a picnic and a blanket and head on over to see the fireworks and enjoy the celebrations!  We'll also go on to cheer him on to win a competition to create a sculpture in 48 hours. 

 Here is one that he had already finished.

 Those boxes on the edges *yellow with gray around them* are the sand sculpture boxes to be.. the one on the left is the one he was starting to work on when we started talking to him... the four on the right are the ones that will they will be doing the competition with.

After that Butch insisted on being FED before going on our interior tour.  Picky man...

 LOVE me some curry wurst...  And yes, that is french fries with mayonnaise. Hey when in rome and don't knock it until you try it!!  LOL

So from here my pictures don't exist because there are NO pictures in the interior tours.  Bummer.  If you WANT pictures inside you can register for a Sunday photo tour - but they are booked weeks and weeks out OR you can pay for a photo pass (what the brides all do) and you get a guide AND a photo pass to take pictures for 60 minutes throughout the palace.  Now that would be fun, eh?? 

Our tour consisted of us and one other couple and they were from Atlanta!  Small world!!

SO we're back to using maps and lines to tell you what we saw.
The red line are the rooms that we saw on the tour... the first section up to the LONG hall right beside courtyard 33 are the queens rooms - a TON of room... and what was most surprising to me was that the queens rooms had a chamber that had windows into an internal courtyard they had light in their living quarters... but the kings side did not - they were all interior.  The grand hall spanned courtyard 33 and was where they would host feasts.. the kitchen being WAY over there on the right side of the screen - that separate building.  So feasts were eaten cold.  News to me.

The off shoot was a theater put there sometime in the late 1700s.  It was quite ornate and you can actually go to plays in there ... good to know, good to know.

So, as you would guess, quite ornate and over the top and the part that possibly impressed me the most was seeing the FLOORS in one of the rooms - they were 2' wide with knots standing out because the wear on the rest of the floor was evident due to softer wood... shockingly interesting to see!!

And then she discovered stock photos!!!  Sweet!!

 OK, they are tiny, but they are here... this is the first room you would enter into the palace from the gardens.  Then you would go left or right depending if you were going to the Queen side (right) or Kin (left).. the king side was under construction.

Entering the Queens rooms....

I don't remember if this was the living room... I think it was considered that...

There was a main room where folks would come in and wait...

Then a greeting room

Then a throne room

Then a sitting room

yea LOTS of rooms along the front... like 5 or 6 before it turned the corner to the back side of the building, then you entered into the library and the room they would sit in and visit and play cards with their ladies in waiting... 

 The Throne room for the queen

 In the older part of the castle On the map - to the lower right side... where the first dukes lived before they finished the rest of the palace and became a king (it was his son, then a nephew, then a brother... it was a hot mess)

 VERY ornate hall at the end... it's the hall of "victory" or "prisoners of war" - aka - they were not very pleasant scuptures to look at at times.. the poor folks were emaciated and not looking too awfully happy.

The theatre - looking from the stage back out towards the kings box - in red.

AND when we completed the tourn in red... it was POURING outside so our sweet tour guide asked if we would like to go through the castle to the storage lockers (they made me store my purse (?)).  Of course, knowing I would have to go THROUGH the castle some more I said "yes, please"... and we got a 2nd wing "tour" that wasn't a tour... see the blue lines.  We didn't get a lot of history, but we did get to see it, so that was cool  There wasn't much difference between the sides, but the other gallery was pretty well the same as the first but with different pictures... and we walked through the ball room area that is now used for concerts - they had folding chairs and a stage set up with a huge grand piano on it.  I image it would be very nice to see a concert in there!!

And with that we were sent down the stairs and into the covered walkway to await the let up in the rain.  There was one wedding photographer taking pictures of a bride.  He was trying to talk her into going out in the rain, but she was NOT hearing any of that!!

Cant blame her, but it would have made for some NICE shots!!

And with that we went home for the night... it was an all day affair... 

and on Sunday this is an apt description of what we were - ha!