Palace of Versailles and Garden!

Last weekend Alessio and I visited Paris, we did two day trips and one was to the Palace of Versailles. The train journey was just over 30mins to Versailles train station and then a 15min walk to the palace itself. Once we got into the grounds we were then horrified to see the longest queue I have ever seen and that was in spite of having bought tickets online. We then queued for over 1.5 hours in the blazing sun.

The Palace of Versailles was the official residence of the Kings of France from 1682 to 1790. It was originally a hunting lodge built in 1624 by Louis XIII. It is a huge complex and you really need the whole day to see it all especially when you have to queue for so long to get in. The gardens were co- designed by André le Nötre, who was considered the greatest landscape architect in France. There is so much to see in garden also, and if you are not exhausted from walking around the palace, you will be after the garden. The movie called A Little Chaos is about Versailles and its garden, it does not get a good review but may be worth seeing for setting!

I was a bit disappointed with the whole visit, this was a place I had really wanted to see for a long time. I did of course know that there would be lots of queuing and waiting but still even in the palace itself it was packed. I would still recommend a visit but maybe not in the summer, I guess all year round it will be busy but maybe a bit less in the other seasons!

Have a great long weekend!

Nymphenburg Palace Munich

Three years ago I went to Munich for a long weekend for a wedding, my friend Janet got married that weekend. During that weekend my camera got stolen and for these photos I borrowed the camera from Claire, she sent me the photos but for some reason I have only now found them!

On the Saturday afternoon with Claire and Aimee we visited the Nymphenburg Palace, yes it was bloody freezing! This amazing Baroque palace was the main summer residence of the Bavarian Monarchs. Sadly we were too late to visit inside so we wondered around outside for as long as humanly possible! The geese were not so bothered by the freezing temperatures anyway!

I would visit it again so I can visit inside and hopefully in warmer weather too! As you can imagine it is one of the top tourist attractions that Munich has to offer! Afterwards if I remember correctly we stopped somewhere for hot chocolate!

Falkland Village

My last day in Scotland we went to Falkland for a walk and a look around the lovely village. First we did our walk which I will post about later on, then we stopped for some refreshments in a nice coffee shop. I had the sticky toffee pudding with cream, having had a fair share of scones over the last week, it was time to taste something different and it was delicious!

The village was really lovely, but the main attraction of the place is Falkland Palace, as it was late we could only see the outside and some of the gardens. The palace was built by two kings James IV and James V replacing the old castle from before, during 1501 and 1541. It was a favorite retreat of the Stuart Kings and Queens, including Mary Queen of Scots.

I have visited the Palace but a long time ago, afterwards we continued walking around and saw an interesting shop. If you have old violins, fiddles and cellos this is place to go to sell it or buy one, maybe they deal in other instruments too.

Scone Palace

Scone Palace was a place I had been waiting to visit for a long time on my trips back to Scotland and finally managed it this October. The whole family went, first we walked around part of the grounds and we went to an adventure playground to keep the boys happy.

A small Presbyterian chapel stands on Moot Hill where all the Kings of Scotland were crowned seated on the Stone of Scone. For those of you who like a bit of history Robert the Bruce was crowned here in 1306 and the last coronation was in 1651 of King Charles II as King of Scots. The real Stone of Scone is no longer here, it is in Edinburgh Castle, the one in front of the chapel is a replica

Roaming the grounds were lots of peacocks including white ones, which we had never seen before. Inside the palace we walked through the rooms, sadly it is not allowed to take photos, but I sneaked some anyway. There were guides in each room to inform the visitors of the history of the palace, it was all very interesting.

We descended to the cafe for some refreshments, the usual scones with cream and jam (getting to be a habit). Then we walked around the grounds some more lots of trees, plants and flowers to look and also there is the Murray Star Maze. You are able to get an overall view of the maze climbing up the stairs and then we decided how best to get to the middle and the fountain.

So off we went trying to get to the middle, trying not to lose any of our party especially the wee ones. Round and round we went, then it started to rain, we started to get annoyed so we cheated and went in the exit way to get to the middle.

If the weather had been nicer we would have spent longer in the grounds, but as it was raining we left. I would definitely recommend a visit if in the area.