Splendor in the Country

Gruss Gott!
So, Pil, don't you ever get tired of castles and palaces?
The Wittelsbachs didn't so why should I?  I am feeling fairly aristocratic myself sitting here watching the individual time trial on the Tour de France, and nibbling marcona almonds and sipping Prosecco as an aperitif.
Sounds awfully Mediterranean, Pil.  Having pasta for dinner are we?
As it happens we are.  Remember Monaco is Italy's northernmost city!
Today I visited the Wittelsbachs' country place near Munich.  It's a complex called Schleissheim, and I have to say the buildings and their interiors here are more impressive than Nymphenburg, and there's more to see inside. The grounds are less extensive and are far more formal.  I like fountains and flower beds just fine, but I missed the woodland walks.
I got a day pass and took the S Bahn out to Ober Schliessheim, a stop I remembered from my jet lagged journey into town.  I followed the crowd out of the station and ended up on the road to the "Schloss."  It's an easy ten to twelve minute walk.  I imagine that on summer weekends the place tends to fill up, but on a weekday, it remained refreshingly uncrowded.  I am guessing few casual tourists make their way out here.  Their loss!
Three palaces make up the complex, and I could use my castles pass to get into all of them.  One first comes upon the Altes Schloss, which was built during the Renaissance around a courtyard.  Then the eye is smitten by the Late Baroque glory of the Neues Schloss, about which more later.  I walked around it to the garden facade to see a long axial garden and canal leading to Schloss Lustheim, which was at least a kilometer away.  I decided to walk up there and work my way back.
I had a pleasant stroll under the trees by canal, stopping occasionally to explain to the swans what lovely birds they are.  Visitors feed them, so they come up hopefully, but alas I having no goodies with me, was a disappointment.
I must comment on one feature of all the woodsy gardens I have wandered in Germany.  Other forest land I have walked in has a sour planty smell,  German woods are fragrant.  It's a faint flowery smell, but I cannot figure out the source.  The trees are the usual varieties of oak, chestnut, beech.  The only flowers are the timid blooms growing on the verges where they can get reliable sunlight.  But the scent is lovely and relaxing.
Schloss Lustheim is comparatively small--on a human scale.  While his real palace was under construction Elector Max-Emanuel, Prince of Bavaria lived here.  Currently it houses an exhibition of porcelain from the Meissen works.  I strolled around choosing various services I intend to use when I give my tea back at Amalienburg.
Then I strolled back to the main event--the new palace built to show the world that Max-Emanuel was wasted as a mere Elector and should be Holy Roman Emperor.  If it only depended on the building, I'd say he'd have been a shoo in, but instead he got mixed up the War of the Spanish Succession and ended up in exile.  The existing building--overwhelmingly grand as it is--is apparently a mere shadow of the original conception.
All the elements are there--grand staircases, huge reception rooms with ceiling frescos done up with mythological allegories, profusion of gilt decoration, Venetian windows, tapestries, silk hangings--the works!  And somehow it does work.  The impression is of grandeur and luxury, but also of exquisite beauty and harmony.  The rooms I loved best were the rooms on the ground floor giving out into the garden.  The decoration in them was no less extravagant but it was also more subtle and elegant.
One more to go, and the old castle is comparatively plain inside and out, but it houses a fascinating exhibition of folk art--mostly Christian--from around the world.
So if you are in Munich--seriously--come out here.  Make a day of it.  Inevitably there's a beer garden as well, so you will never be far from refreshment.