Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany

Only fifty minutes down the road from my house is the city of Bayreuth, a lesser known jewel in Bavaria that's nestled between an autobahn and farmers crops. 
With gardens, palaces, shopping, and fountains galore, Bayreuth is so much more than I expected it to be!

Because school is about to start, we've calmed our erratic travels for the summer season. We still go out often enough, but many times to places I have already wrote home about: Nuremberg, Amberg, Weiden. 

I knew Bayreuth existed, but we kept putting it off. Our thoughts upon moving to Germany were to work our way from the outside, in. 
When we lived in Tacoma, WA, USA, we exhausted all of the nearby things to do within the first year, and by the time that we could explore cities and places further away (yet still close enough), it was too late. Before we knew it, we were living on the other side of the country in Clarksville, TN, USA, where again, anything nearby to see and do within four hours of our home had been done so many times that we didn't care to do them anymore .
I didn't want to feel that way about Germany, more so Bavaria (the state in which I live).
Therefore, Bayreuth was put off for a reason.

Anyway, Bayreuth was a 50 minute drive up the A9 (autobahn). 
First stop on the GPS: Altes Schloss Eremitage; A palace with gardens in a large park-like complex.

At first sight, I was bummed. I have heard all about the beautiful flowers at this place, but didn't see any when walking along the hedge garden. I thought that maybe they had been removed because of the end of season, but when we approached the Neues Schloss Eeremitage building on the grounds, I found my flowers! And a ton of rocks!

The entire outside of Neues Schloss (New Palace/Castle: Mostly referred to as 'The Orangery') is covered in rocks! One TripAdvisor reviewer noted that the building is covered in seashells, but upon close inspection, they look like colored rocks! Rocks from the sea? Possibly. 
It reminds me of the Grottenhof room inside Munich-Residenz. The differences are that Grottenhof is an interior palace room, and I am pretty certain that Grottenhof IS covered in seashells, not rocks. Same concept here, though.

After exploring the area, we wandered through a tree covered path to Altes Schloss within the grounds. Altes Schloss is not spectacular as far as palace exteriors go, but I adored the garden surrounding it.

Near Altes Schloss, there are a few randoms: A ruined pillar wall, a tiny chapel decoupaged in tree bark, and a ruined theater. I never did figure out what the ruined pillar wall represents...I shall look it up. Like most places in Deutschland, Bayreuth was also affected by WWII, and this palace complex was no exception, hence the ruins. Many of the buildings in this city were carefully reconstructed after the war, including the neato Orangery rock palace at the Eremitage.

 Also, there is a beirgarten/cafe if one should need to quench their thirst or grab a bite to eat. 

Every castle and palace in Germany has beer nearby! 

We circled back around to where we began, and noted a "grotte" on a park map post. The word translates to "grotto", and I knew I had to find it. But first, we found some acorns, and a water-breathing dragon! 

The "Grotte" is beautiful! It was actually my favorite part of the Eremitage, and funny that I didn't read anything about it existing on the grounds before our visit. 

I always do a quick history and site check on every place we plan to visit if I am uncertain of things OR if I don't know much about it. I did this for Bayreuth.

 The grotto and it's fountains at Eremitage never popped up. It was definitely a happy surprise! Unfortunately, the fountains (for some unknown reason) were not operating on this day throughout the entire complex. It's said that they operate every hour, on the hour, everyday, but the day of our visit they did not. Only small fountains were in operation. Generally, large decorative fountains around Europe shut off for winter, but it's not even fall yet. Maybe they were down for maintenance, but we couldn't figure out the reason.

 I want to return just to see the fountains in full swing!

I didn't want to leave the grotto area, but lunch time was calling. We followed a path that leads around the outside of the Eremitage to the car park (where we found the cute house and the totally random pagoda below), and then we were on our way to Bayreuth's city center.

The friendliest 'no vehicle' sign we have met thus far.

About 10 minutes down the road via car, we arrived in Bayreuth's center. After circling a few buildings twice, we finally found parking. Our Garmin is a real bitch sometimes!

I hadn't even got out of the car, but already knew I would love this little city! It had architectural elements that reminded me of Dresden.
The sad part: The elements I speak of are a mix of old and new construction because of war. 

Our first order of business was finding somewhere to sit down and eat. We settled on Doners (go figure) at a place called Aksu Doner, near the ever-so-modern Bayreuth Rathaus, and then walked back to the shopping area near the Margravial Opera House. Unfortunately, the opera house is under restoration, so tours of the opulent inside were a no-go. Boo. It is set to reopen in 2016, so I will most definitely be returning.

Seeing Princess Wilhelmine in Bayreuth is a common occurrence. The entire city of Bayreuth has her and her husband's influence stamped all over it. Just like many 18th century palaces all over Europe, Versailles was a large influence. 

Princess Wilhelmine and her husband, Frederick Margrave, nearly bankrupted the city and themselves trying to imitate the general area and palace of Versailles.

Although lovely, Bayreuth is no city of Versailles. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Versailles was often imitated, yet never duplicated!

Exterior, front facade, of Margravial Opera House.

Last on the list for the day was Neues Schloss Bayreuth: The Bayreuth 'New' Palace.

What's odd is that Wilhelmine helped design many of the interior rooms of the palace, and although Versailles was a large inspiration, there is very little design and decor within this palace that embodies such from Chateau de Versailles. This palace is more rococo-ish than anything, and has a ton of Italian influence. 

We toured the palace for €10, for a family of six (kids are free). I didn't bring back any interior photos, because like most palaces and castles in Germany, photography is prohibited. 

Some things I want to note if you plan to tour:

• Ask for the English written guide of the first floor, and remember, here in Europe the first floor is not the ground floor! It is the first floor after ascending a first set of stairs (in other words, it's the second floor to my American friends).

• Pay attention to the ceilings. The "Mirrored Room" is one of a kind when looking up!

• In regards to the Mirrored Room, take a moment to notice the interesting oil paintings. The painting of a woman sitting in a portrait pose whilst stabbing herself is odd, but turn around and note that a woman is breastfeeding a grown-ass bearded man in another painting across the room. If I wanted to take of photo of anything, it was that! 

When we finished touring the inside of the Palace (which only takes about a half hour IF you pass on the German guided temporary exhibition tour, which we did), we strolled the gardens of the palace on the backside. The gardens are lovely and would make for a great picnic setting. I also had something I had to do while visiting: The gardens are connected to the Richard Wagner Museum, and I was 'dying' to get a photo of his grave site.

Rear, garden side, of Neues Schloss Bayreuth.

Finally stumbled upon the Richard Wagner Museum. I opted to skip a tour of the museum, but I definitely visited his grave site within the grounds. 

Richard Wagner was a famous German composer and Librettist, and is well-known for a few of his works. Most people know him for at least one thing; Tristan and Isolde. 

You may have caught a modern day film adaption of this opera starring James Franco in recent years!

Oh, and Wagner is also that guy who is said to have had an affair with a well-known Bavarian King: 

King Ludwig II, you know, the dude that built Neuschwanstein Castle?! 

We called it a day and began to back-track to the car. 

Statue swag.

Bayreuth may not be on many 'must see' lists, but it was certainly worth a visit for us! We didn't explore the half of it, but plan to return maybe this fall or next spring. Hopefully I can catch the fountains of the Eremitage in operation if we visit next spring. Or if we go again this fall, I assume the trees and their leaves will be picturesque. 
Maybe we'll just visit during both seasons? 
No matter what, Bayreuth will happen again.

Next adventure? Stay tuned...we'll be in Germany, but farther north and out of Bavaria. 
Pretty excited for the next destination!