A couple weeks ago a sweet friend of mine from Fort Bragg came to Germany with her husband, who was on TDY. She had time to kill during the day while he was working so Joshua and I decided to drive over to Stuttgart to meet her.
Now, you may have heard me lament over driving to, near, around, in the vicinity of Stuttgart before. The TRAFFIC. It's just terrible. Every. Single. Time. And honestly, this time was no different. I lamented the whole way there and back. ;)
Let's just take a minute and thank the Lord and the Army that the Soldier was not stationed in Stuttgart.....
ok.
But once we (finally) got there we had a great time! And it was actually such a great time the extremely slow and long drive home didn't overshadow the fun. :)
We went to Ludwigsburg castle, a beautiful baroque palace just north of Stuttgart. The foundations were layed in the early 18th century and the palace was gradually added to, redecorated, and completed over the next 40 or 50 years. as different rulers assumed title.
Surprisingly, the castle was not destroyed during WWII and it remains in beautiful condition today. The centrepiece of the grounds are the gardens. As we visited during one of the driest summers on record, they were not as spectacular as some of the photos we saw of them, but they were still lovely.
In addition, there is a children's fairy tale garden on the grounds--and that was an absolute delight to explore.
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| In the courtyard |
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| from inside the courtyard-looking back at the first building of the complex |
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| beautiful old carousel |
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| This was the only photo I was able to snap inside the palace before we were informed that no photography was allowed... |
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| taken from inside the castle |
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| Lost in the hedge maze. Good thing we had just filled up on coffee and cake! |
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| fun in the fairy tale garden. |
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| On the boat, just before floating through the big whale... |
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