residenz

By -
as my friend and i were wandering through the city, we decided to check out the residenz, which was the former residence of the bavarian kings.  i cannot believe that it was originally built in the late 1300s.  it was definitely built in pieces though, which was obvious reviewing the layout of the building.  

it took us about 20 minutes to find the entrance to the building leading us through many, many courtyards.  the entrance was very poorly labeled.  and no, this was not a case of us not understanding german!  by the time we found the entrance, it was 505.  we had to spend about 5 minutes trying to convince the guard to let us in.  they supposedly close entrance an hour early, since it closes at 6.  really?  wow.  that is something.  i understand closing admission a half hour early, but an hour early (and of course, they were closed the next day).

the rooms are beautiful.  we were quite happy we begged to let us in.  the antiquarium was breathtaking.  i have never been to versailles, but i am pretty sure this room rivals the room of mirrors.  i am not sure why we had never heard about it before.
the view of the room from the position of the power
one of ~20 alcoves in the picture above
i thought this grotto was beautiful.  it was made of all shells.  unfortunately, it seems quite fragile and was covered in nets.  you could still see the beauty.
 
we did love to see some of the marital beds.  we had a little bit of a giggle at those!  the rooms really seemed beautiful.  they also seemed to reflect different time periods and decorating styles.  i loved seeing the introduction of pseudo "asian styled" porcelain.  everything was so ornate.

very interesting to see how the palace was changed and tweaked over 500 years.  if you cannot get outside of munich to another palace, this is a great option to really see the culture and style of the bavarian kings and queens.
 
time in the palace: 1 hr
times visited: 1
overall: A-
Location: Bavarian State Opera, Max-Joseph-Platz, 80539 Munich, Germany

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

detroit institute of arts

By -
i went to the detroit institute of arts museum to see the rembrandt and the face of jesus exhibit.  it was really great. we bought tickets online the night before to reserve our viewing time.  our biggest gripe about the entire experience was the $3.50 "convenience fee" that was tacked onto each ticket purchased.  the ticket price was $16, so this "convenience fee" was almost 22% of the ticket price.  at this point, purchasing tickets online is cheaper for the museum since they do not have to employee someone to speak to me and they don't even have to print the ticket!  if they are really counting on this fee, just roll it into my admission price please; it would make me a little less grumpy while still getting the same amount of money out of me! we arrived a little early to the exhibit, which ended up being a good move since they had completely sold the exhibit out for the day.  they let people into the exhibit in batches, so it was fine that we got...
Read more

neue gallery

By -
i went to the neue gallery with my college sister. i had wanted to go for a while. the first time i wanted to go, there was a line out the door and i ended up going to the whitney instead. i found out later it was one of the first weekends for a new exhibit. well, this time we went, unbeknownst to us, but a new exhibit on klimt was opening the weekend we were there as well. we were able to get in no problems, but as we were leaving we noticed that a line (again) out the door had developed. the museum itself is quite small, which i think causes this out the door problem. we really enjoyed the museum. it was just about the right size and pretty easy to navigate. they limit the number of people in it because it just would get to hard to move. the klimt exhibit itself was quite nice. my sister knew a lot more about klimt than i did. i recognized some of the paintings, but my sister knew much more about his background. the museum did a nice job putting the exhibit together...
Read more

metropolitan museum of art

By -
i went to the metropolitan museum of art today to see the art of the samurai: japanese arms and armor, 1156-1868 . this exhibit was in the typical special exhibit location....second floor to the left passing through the marble statues. the exhibit was fantastic. as described in the introduction to the exhibit, it is the most comprehensive exhibit ever devoted to samurai art. most of the art were designated as "national treasure" and "important cultural property." i found quite a few of the items on the wikipedia page for japanese national treasures . the exhibit had a number of swords, sword mountings and armor. a number of the items (~60) will be switched out in the next week with new items. most of the items cannot handle light for such long periods. some of the armor was fantastic, in particular one. this particular armor was replicated 100 years later for a child in the same family. this helmet was absolutely fantastic. i cannot believe that i spent ...
Read more