Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
34
Puppenstube
G4
NEUHAUSEN & NYMPHENBURG
One of Munich's oldest districts, Neuhausen has an air of relaxed confidence, Europe's
largest beer garden (the Hirschgarten;
Click here
)
and pretty good nightlife and dining. It
also has a long and cosy association with the royal family since becoming the servants'
quarter for the newly built Schloss Nymphenburg in the 17th century. A couple of hun-
dred years later, Neuhausen was revamped as a residential pad for the wealthy, with the
villas along the Nymphenburg Canal resembling second-string royal residences. The
canal, by the way, often freezes over in winter, luring skaters and curlers onto the ice.
The commercial heart of Neuhausen - bustling Rotkreuzplatz (nicknamed Stachus of
Neuhausen) - may be an aesthetically challenged product of the 1960s, but at least it's
home to Munich's best ice-cream parlour, the Eiscafé Sarcletti (
Click here
)
. The square
is also the gateway to low-key and tourist-free bars and restaurants in radiating side
streets. On Thursday a farmers market brings out the locals from 10am to 7pm.
Schloss Nymphenburg
(
www.schloss-nymphenburg.de
;
adult/child €6/5; 9am-6pm Apr-mid-Oct, 10am-4pm
mid-Oct-Mar; Schloss Nymphenburg)
This commanding palace and its lavish gardens
sprawl around 5km northwest of the Altstadt. Begun in 1664 as a villa for Electress
Adelaide of Savoy, the stately pile was extended over the next century to create the royal
family's summer residence. Franz Duke of Bavaria, head of the once royal Wittelsbach
family, still occupies an apartment here.
The main palace building consists of a large villa and two wings of creaking parquet
floors and sumptuous period rooms. Right at the beginning of the self-guided tour comes
the highpoint of the entire Schloss, the
Schönheitengalerie
(Gallery of Beauties), housed
in the former apartments of Queen Caroline. Some 38 portraits of attractive females
chosen by an admiring King Ludwig I peer prettily from the walls. The most famous im-
age is of Helene Sedlmayr, the daughter of a shoemaker, wearing a lavish frock the king
gave her for the sitting. You'll also find Ludwig's beautiful, but notorious, lover Lola
Montez (
Click here
)
, 19th-century gossip-column celebrity Jane Lady Ellenborough, and
English beauty Lady Jane Erskin.
PALACE
