Hi friends, welcome back to my Germany and Austria series. I’m continuing today with the second half of our day in Munich. Besides the glockenspiel at Marienplatz, touring the Residnez Complex was the only item on our itinerary for the day. I wasn’t sure how tired we’d feel so I left the day pretty open. I was originally deciding between visiting the Nymphenburg Palace and the Residenz, but ultimately chose the Residenz because it’s in the city center while Nymphenburg Palace requires a short train ride.
Outside the Residenz is the Max Joseph Platz featuring a statue of Maximilian I, one of the kings of Bavaria. He was well regarded and opened the National Theater behind his statue in 1818. Nowadays the Bavarian State Opera and Bavarian State Orchestra perform here.
The Residenz Palace was originally constructed in 1385 as a small castle and mote for the ruling Wittelsbach family. From about 1550 to 1650 the main building was built, and the gorgeous exterior was constructed to look like Pritti Palace in Florence. The Residenz was heavily bombed in WWII, so most of what we saw was reconstructed.
There are three areas to tour here, and each spot requires a separate ticket. Jon and I only toured the Residenz Museum featuring 90 rooms, but you can also tour the Residenz Treasury with the crown jewels, and the Cuvillies Theater. There’s an audioguide included with admission, however we were too exhausted to grab one. We thoroughly enjoyed wandering through the lavish rooms.
This banquet hall is the oldest room in the palace and spans 220 feet. The size of this room was very impressive, you could fit almost two and a half basketball courts in here!
This chapel hosted the funeral of Mad King Ludwig II (more on him in future posts) after his mysterious drowning in Lake Starnberg.
During WWII some of the paintings were cut off the walls and hidden. The room was roped off but we could vaguely see the cut marks which was pretty neat.
The Residenz reminded me quite a bit of touring Versailles, but nobody can top Louis XIV and his life of luxury. This museum was a lot larger than we expected, it seemed like the rooms went on forever. It was a nice escape from the heat outside and Jon and I enjoyed touring this palace a lot more than we thought we would. We’d highly recommend visiting if you’re in Munich. If I ever make it back to Munich I want to see the crown jewels and Nymphenburg Palace.
For dinner Jon and I tried to go to the famous Oktoberfest beer hall called Hofbräuhaus, but as you can imagine on a Friday night, this place was PACKED! We went to Ayinger am Platzl across the street and had a delicious German meal of pork roast, potato dumplings, bread dumplings, coleslaw, and our first beer and pretzels of the trip. Beer is usually not my drink of choice, but a must in Germany. I ordered a light beer and it was very large, refreshing, and delicious.
Despite our extreme tiredness, Jon and I had a great first day of our trip! When we got back to our hotel, it started storming and I’d never seen such constant lightning before. We both crashed hard and when the alarm went off the next morning, I slept so deep that it took me quite a while to figure out where I was! Stay tuned for our adventures to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GaPa) up next!
Posts in my Germany & Austria series:
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