It probably comes as no surprise that I’m absolutely obsessed with palaces and castles (especially in Germany). There’s just something about the grandeur and the history of these places that just seem to always capture my imagination.
Palaces and castles across the world have been home to notable people in history and have no shortage of amazing (and sometimes scandalous) stories that took place in their very walls – and I’m a sucker for all that historical ‘gossip’!
As you may remember from Instagram recently, we headed over to Bavaria – home to some of Germany’s most amazing palaces and castles (it’s been the home of many lines of the German Royal Family) and straight off the bat, I knew this was gonna be one road trip filled with some pretty spectacular sights!
For the uninitiated, it’s not just the castles and palaces that totally make Bavaria worth visiting.
It is also chock-full of some rather impressive natural sights! But I’m getting ahead of myself here… I’ll come to that later on!
Flying into Munich, our first stop (even before going to the hotel or stopping off to get some food) was at Schleissheim Palace. Truth be told, as obsessed as I am with palaces, I’d never really heard of Schleissheim Palace.
It was from a recommendation we decided to make it a quick pit stop before heading on to the hotel to check in. ( It is technically in Munich and is only like 15 minutes or so from the airport anyway.)
The Palace looked interesting enough from the outside but it wasn’t until we stepped into the entrance area that I started to get a sense of how amazing it was.
Intricately designed, gold-gilded ceilings and marble pillars very quickly gave away the fact that this wasn’t just your average German palace.
The entrance area, impressive as it is, has nothing on the other bits upstairs (it did have a band playing the most amazing music in the dining room – which made it feel all the more special and magical to visit).
The grand staircase (the clue is in the name, really) is easily one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen.
Like seriously, this is why I take photos – I’ll just show you the photos so you can see exactly what it looks like.
Now, do you see what I mean?
Like seriously – all thoughts of checking into the hotel or even of food disappeared at this very moment!
We carried on upstairs, through to the grand gallery, another rather impressive part of the palace; not least because of the impressive art collection up here.
The mix of the sheer length of the room, its stunning design, the art and the view of the gardens outside is somewhat heady and one that will leave you picking your jaw up from the floor.
We carried on through the rooms, each one as or perhaps even more impressive than the other.
For a place, I was only planning on spending minutes (tops – 1 hour) in, Schleissheim palace was certainly proving to be quite the German gem!
The rooms lead to the Maximilian’s Chapel at one end, though you can really go in – or at least, we couldn’t when we visited – you can, however, rent it out for private purposes (it is surprisingly cheap too)…
…while on the other end, you’ve got the State Bedroom I think it’s the only ‘bedroom’ we saw in this palace), the Chamber Chapel and the Cabinet (all of which were in the Electress’s Apartment)
The entire palace is just such a beautiful display of German’s Baroque architecture and time just flew by as we wander from room to room.
The Grand Hall, by the way, even though it was filled with chairs (not sure why or what was going on) was pretty impressive and fitted its name quite well! Just look at it! 😍
We swung by the adjoining Victory Hall – also equally impressive…
…before making out way back down the stairs to a part of the palace we’d unintentionally skipped when we arrived – the ground floor rooms.
The rooms on the ground floor, which the exception of the dining room, the Vestibule and the Sala Terrena are predominantly made up of galleries… beautiful, impressive galleries but ones that we had to hurry through as we’d spent hours already marvelling at the New Palace (I saw ‘New’ but it’s over 300 years old) and still had 2 more palaces to check out at Schleissheim.
See, Schleissheim is made up of 3 palaces; the Old Palace, the New Palace and the Lustheim Palace.
The old and new ones probably don’t need much explaining; one was built first – after a while, the Bavarian rulers decided they wanted one even bigger and grander – ergo the new palace.
The Lustheim, I guess is something more like a pleasure palace. It’s a garden villa built for the then King’s first wife and is perhaps less ‘home’ and more just a chill-out spot.
We swung quickly by the Old Palace – which is a museum now and less ‘grand palace’ like the New Palace (so visit the New Palace first when you get here) before making our way over to the Lustheim Palace, which is also a museum.
The Lustheim Palace is at the very end of the gardens at and is quite a trek! 😄
Thankfully, it’s a very beautiful trek and one that’s made even better with the sun out and a lovely breeze whistling through the trees to keep you nice and cool.
Alas, by the time we actually made it to the Lustheim Palace, it had closed which turned out to be actually fine as we were still reeling from the beauty of the New Palace… and it also meant we had even more time to explore the grounds here.
The ground here, by the way, are also a huge part of why you need to visit Schleissheim Palace! They’re expansive, beautifully manicured and ones you could easily spend hours wandering through.
We slowly made our way back to the New Palace (which is where we parked the car), stopping off for a little gander at the other parts of the old palace we’d not seen yet (there’s a whole courtyard behind this)…
…before finally giving into the rumbling in my tummy (which seemed to arrive out of nowhere) and head off to find a spot for food! (By this point, it was time for dinner).
One place that was recommended to us for food was Comviet – a local Vietnamese restaurant and the top restaurant in the area.
I kid you not, I don’t know why or what the story behind this is but the best Vietnamese food I’ve had (outside of Vietnam) has been in Germany. This happened when we were in Berlin and again in Munich!
The food here was incredible! I can’t remember what the exact name of the dish I had – it was a creamy, coconut chicken dish with fresh vegetables and it was just so delicious!
Seriously, when you visit the Palace – make the time to stop here for some food. It’s so good!
Fed, watered and caffeinated, we hit the road, this time heading straight for the hotel and unbelievably eager and excited to explore Bavaria.
Of course, and discovering its many beautiful castles, palaces, mountains and lakes over the next few days.
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
