There are a lot of flowers in Bayreuth, but this one cought my eye. / V Bayreuthu je zelo veliko rož, ampak ta me je še posebej očarala.
When you read about Bayreuth you will find mostly things about Wagner and the summer opera festival that is known worldwide. But the real star of Bayreuth for me (you have to take into account that I never really liked opera or ever even knew anything about it – but I have always liked history. If I liked or could afford travel a little bit more I would have decided to study archaeology instead of law. Very few people know that about me.) is the princess Margravine Wilhelmina of Bayreuth. As I understand the history she was a bit of a victim of arranged marriage as she was arranged to marry a dull husband. She on the other hand was an artistic and a vibrant woman. Because she didn`t get any feedback from her husband, she focused all her creativity and energy on the city.
A part of Eremitage (click the flower for their site) is her doing, infact Bayreuth`s golden age was in the time of the rule of her husband, but it was golden because of her. So she is the real star of Bayreuth. One of her legacies is also the most beautiful sites in the Eremitage – the Sun Palace. We looked at it with our jaws opened:
Some details! / Malo detajlov!
Mosaics / Mozaiki
When you park the car in the Eremitage parking lot, you immediately realize that this is going to be an interesting experience. The Eremitage park is huge – HUUUGE. And every part of it if gorgeous. Greens and water and amazing architecture. Beautiful. Eremitage is the sole reason to come to Bayreuth.
As you can see we loved it. We started our tour from the parking. A group of green arches leads you to a water park, where you can already see the golden roof of the Sun Palace.
The golden roof of the Sun Palace!
After you indulge yourself in the Sun Palace, there are several places you can visit. As we are big fans of Dragons (I convinced my kids they are still alive – LOL), we visited the Drachen Hoele – the Dragon Cave, where I gave Ambrož the scare of his life. I am just sorry I couldn`t capture the moment when I made the dragon sound. He had to go pee right afterward. I am a terrible man, I know.
The Dragon Cave / Zmajeva jama!
After the Dragon Cave we had a small picnic right next to some forgotten pools from where we continued to an aristocratic pool that was probably sight to behold in its prime days. It is impressive even today.
Our picnic place. / Naš prostor za piknik.
This is the way they did it in the old days./ Tako so se pa namakali aristokrati v zlatem obdobju.
The next thing we saw reminded me of Japan architecture. And I read somewhere in the park (the downside to the park is that all the signs with information are in German, so we didn`t understand everything) that Wilhelmina did incorporate some of Japanese architecture into the park. This pavilion is probably one of the examples.
Then it was already running late so we headed back to the pools next to the parking. It was there that Ambrož had his first dip of the year, involuntarily. I suspected that this could happen so I told Paula to stay by his side. She got him out in couple of second, so it was kind of funny. Yeah, I laughed and took pictures, but this could have ended a lot worse.
Moments after the accidental swim. / Trenutki po ponesrečenem kopanju.
After this ordeal we didn`t have other choices but to head home. Eremitage, we will come again. Oh, I forgot to tell you, there is no admission for the things we saw. In this time of year there isn`t even a park toll. But we didn`t even get to the Old Castle. We kept that for the next time.
Eremitage (ali pomeni nekaj kot puščavnik) po slovensko:
Ko boste brali o Bayreuthu, boste verjetno našli predvsem podatke o Wagnerju in poletnem festival opera (Wagnerjeve igre). Ampak zame je resnična zvezda Bayreutha (morate pa upoštevati, da nimam pojma o opera in je nikoli nisem ravno vzljubil, me je pa vedno zanimala zgodovina in velika zapuščina velikih ljudi – pa ne želim reči, da Wagner ni bil velik človek, samo njegova zapuščina zame ni ravno zanimiva) princesa Margravine Wilhelmina of Bayreuth. Kot razumem njeno zgodovino in življenje, je bila v zakonu precej nesrečna, saj se je morala poročiti s precej nezanimivim moškim. Ona pa je bila precej kreativna in živa (v dobrem smislu) ženska. Ker od svojega moža ni dobila kar je rabila, je usmerila vso svojo energijo in kreativnost v izboljšave mesta.
Del Eremitaga (klikni na rožo zgoraj in te popelje na uradno stran Eremitaga) je njeno delo, pravzaprav je Bayreuth doživel zlato dobo pod vladavino njenega moža, ampak je bila zlata izključno zaradi nje. Tako je ona prava zvezda Bayreutha. Ena od njenih zapuščin v Eremitage je tudi Sončna palača. Ogledovali smo si jo z odprtimi usti (glej slike zgoraj).
Ko parkiraš na parkirišču Eremitaga, se nemudoma zaveš, da bo to posebna izkušnja. Park Eremitaga je namreč OGROMEN. In vsak del, ki smog a videli, je izjemno lep. Zelenje in voda, skupaj z osupljivo arhitekturo. Prelepo. Eremitage je lahko razlog, da obiščete Bayreuth, če vas nič drugega na tem mestu ne pritegne.
Kot lahko vidite iz zgornjih slik, nam je bilo izjemno všeč. Začeli smo pri parkirišču, od katerega te pelje k prvemu parku z bazenčki zelen obok. Od tam že lahko vidiš zlato streho Sončne palače.
Ko se naužiješ Sončne palače, ti preostane kar nekaj mest, ki jih lahko pogledaš v Eremitage. Ker smo trenutno zelo veliki ljubitelji zmajev (Mojco in Ambroža sem prepričal, da so še živi ;)), smo si seveda pogledali Zmajevo jamo. Zmajevo jamo si bo Ambrož zapolnil, saj sem ga tam tako prestrašil, da je moral takoj lulati. Grozen sem, saj vem.
Malce naprej od Zmajeve jame smo imeli majhen piknik, poleg še nekih malce pozabljenih bazenčkov. Ko smo se malce okrepčali, nas je pot popeljala do prelepega aristokratskega bazena, ki je moral biti izjemno lepo kopališče v svojih najboljših dnevih. Še danes je očarljiv, kot se vidi iz zgornje slike.
Naslednja zgradba, ki smo jo videli, me je zelo spominjala na japonsko arhitekturo. In dejansko je nekje pisalo (slabost parka je predvsem v tem, da so vsi informativni zapisi izključno v nemščini), da je princesa vnesla Japonske simbole v nekatere zgradbe. Paviljon je en od takih primerkov.
Ko se nam je že malo mudilo, smo se odpravili nazaj k bazenčkom zraven parkirišča. Tam pa se je Ambrožu pripetila majhna nesreča, saj se je proti svoji volji malce skopal. Prvič letos. Ko sem ga opazoval, ko je hodil ob vodi (kljub opozorilom, da lahko notri pade), sem Pauli naročil naj ga pobliže popazi. Zato ga je lahko zelo hitro rešila iz vode. Ker ni bil v realni nevarnosti, je bilo vse skupaj malce smešno. In seveda sem se smejal in slikal, ampak lahko pa bi se končalo precej slabše.
Po neželenem kopanju, smo se odpravili proti domu. Bomo se pa vsekakor vrnili v Eremitage, saj ga polovice še nismo videli. Pozabil sem povedati, da za vse kar smo videli, nismo plačali vstopnine. V tem letnem času tudi ni treba plačati parkirnine (bomo videli kako bo v vrhuncu sezone). Nismo videli starega gradu, zato si ga bomo ogledali naslednjič.
Prelepo…