Hellbrunn Palace, where there was nowhere to hide

Adrienne and I dragged us out of bed after the middle of the night packing that occurred during our sleep in day.

We headed into town to get breakfast (croissants), went to go into one of the large churches that was closed to construction (typical) and then took the bus to Hellbrunn Palace.

While waiting for our tour through the gardens, a condescending Chinese man studying economics at Cambridge wouldn't stop talking to us.

He corrected my use of a word (which I used correctly. I checked later thank you very much) and then kept telling us who the various statues were and acted surprised that I knew who Poseidon was. My minor in Classical Studies was not for nothing buddy.

It was infuriating.

Anyway, back to the palace.

An archbishop who ran the palace set up the gardens to trick people. It involved secret fountains spraying people all over the place. Seats at tables, antlers of animals, straight from the ground, water flying shocking distances. You were never safe!

 This is a fish that isn't involved in the trickery.

 The tour started here.

I loved how everything was made of stucco.

The seats here sprayed water, which they nicely had the children test out.

When the Archbishop had dinner guests, they were not allowed to stand unless he was standing. His chair did not spray water, so he got to watch while they all got soaked but were not allowed to stand due to customs.

 The seats were quickly emptied of children.

These antlers sprayed water. Apparently the gardens were set up so that the archbishop never got wet, but he could enjoy the show of people running from the water.

The ceilings had really unique decorations, which were really beautiful.

There were a variety of shells and fish throughout the rooms.

 A lovely lion sheep.

 Poseidon. I already knew that, condescending man.

 Some cherub mermaids fighting a snake.

This was actually a carousel which turned with a variety of creatures and characters.

 The view of the water spraying antlers from afar.

There were several figurines displayed throughout the gardens, which were very cute.

 I'm not sure what that is but it's pretty.

 Here are some turtles spraying spit water around.

 The figurines moved, including that drag there. It moved in front of the sacrifice (is it a sacrifice? who knows what that man is supposed to be doing.)

 A statue showing her muscles.

 A warthog.

 Adrienne the warthog.

This was a working miniature theater, which was really cool.

 Medusa's face on a shield.

This was interesting. I didn't manage to get a picture, but that cone rose up when water sprayed from the bottom and then poured all over the floor.

People being sprayed. That poor child on the left looks horrified. The other children were gleefully running through the water.

 Figurines everywhere!

 There was a mini lake on the grounds.

 The palace from afar.

Adrienne meant this as a joke and purposely zoomed in on my face, but I kind of love this picture. It always helps to be camera ready, especially when walking towards Adrienne when she's holding a camera.

My purse was causing shirt problems.

 I believe this was intended to be a photobomb.

 Adrienne's shoulder is invading my picture of a unicorn.

Random fact: There aren't any bedrooms in the palace because it was only used during the day and the archbishop returned to town at night.

 Rather large fish swimming about.

 The front of the palace.

 We walked down this walkway towards the Gazebo from "The Sound of Music." I knew we'd see it the next day with a crowd, but we decided to look at it without a crowd.

 There's also a lovely view of a field next to the gazebo.

The gazebo! It's so amazing! A nice British family joined us and were equally annoyed that the doors were locked, due to that darn 70 year old woman breaking her hip and making it a liability.

How dare she.

We were very excited about being at the gazebo. It was actually at the house where they filmed the back of the house in the movie, but so many people were jumping walls to look at it that they moved it to Hellbrunn Palace Park in 1991.

 The fabulous Hellbrunn Palace Park.

We then headed inside the palace and explored the various rooms, which were cleverly named.
Some animals that were probably hunted by the archbishop.

 An archbishop.

A intricately decorated furnace.

 More figurines. The figurines have been at Hellbrunn since the 17th century. They have been put in the various water machines and decorated different elements in the garden. They were meant to show the "technical mastery over the element of water. The prince archbishop could thus present to his visitors what his engineers were capable of" according to the sign on the wall next to the figurines.

They showed various Greek myths and also the artisans.

This was in the room cleverly known as "The Fish Room."

 This is the aptly named Bird Room.

 Fabulously tufted parrots.

 This was in the Sunflower room.

That is the scariest sunflower I have ever seen.

This room was incredible. Every bit of it was beautiful.

 There was a parrot on the ceiling.

It's called the "Festival Hall" and was painted by Arsenio Mascagni.

They are all frescoes that are beautifully done.

 I do not know who those women are.

We then headed back into Salzburg. We bought delicious pretzels from a stand. I unfortunately decided to buy chocolate pretzels which melted due to the extreme heat of the day.

There was chocolate everywhere. It was all over everything and there was nothing I could do about it because I didn't have any napkins. After I'd finally managed to clean myself up, since apparently I eat like a one year old child, Adrienne noticed I had chocolate on my butt. I have no idea how that happened. We then headed to Nonnberg Abbey and attempted to break our way into the courtyard where everyone hides in the Sound of Music. But that will be in the next blog.