Schloss Brühl, Germany

Back on the road today, drove to Brühl to see the schloss, palace, that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It was a cute-ish palace.  No photographs inside, too bad, but we got to see everything, and this was a rare occasion when I really needed an audio guide as the mandatory tour guide gave his lecture in German.  He was a handsome young man who couldn't have been a day older than 23, and he did speak a word or two in English whenever he thought it was needed -- 'Please do not touch anything' and 'I will wait for you in the next room.'

Now that I am visiting German palaces, albeit perhaps minor ones, I'm starting to compare what I've seen so far in England, France, and The Netherlands, and I have the rough idea that the Dutch palaces could be positioned between the German ones and the French ones, but the gardens are almost invariably English.  One thing the Dutch do not do -- paint their palaces in pastel colours.  The French have a different style altogether where the outside doesn't exactly lend itself to coloured paint, idem ditto the English who I think prefer to use stone.  The paint is, or can be, very pretty and cozy but occasionally makes the palace look like a slice of cake, or a kitschy ceramic creation.  This particular schloss has a number of rooms covered entirely in Delft blue tiles, all imported almost 300 years ago from a factory in Rotterdam.  I have put it on my virtual list to dig up more information on this -- a Delft blue assembly line in Rotterdam in the 1700s?  Where was it located?  Where is it now?  I asked the tour guide if the Dutch craftsmen came all the way to Brühl to install the whole project and he didn't know, but I think they would have, and if so, this is yet another example of an intercultural exchange and business deal in one.  Of course, these relationships go back thousands of years, but with the rise of the nation state, they became more political in character.  I like learning about what the ordinary people did.

The owner of Schloss Brühl ... well,  you can read all about it here.  I was impressed but also a bit put off by what appears to have been the rather strict rules of protocol that were in place in the palace, where rank and function were precisely defined.  Of course, the French and English were this way, too, but I think the French way is a diluted version, while the British manner is exactly the same but in another language and minus the pastel paint.  The Dutch court also has its formalities but you can tell that the power-distance (Geert Hofstede) influence in The Netherlands is on the low side ... which is exactly how we want it.

A pleasant day in Germany!  And the car?  Oooh, it purred the whole time like a satisfied cat.  For the trip, I took out my self-made CD collection of James Taylor tunes, the ones I used to listen to when I was still a young woman in Manila, dreaming of days like today.  Back home, Olaf, our 'klusjesman' of last year, was back at our place, preparing the section of wood at the back for a final layer of dark blue paint, matching the previous colour, while AW relaxed part of the time in the hammock (bought for one euro in Siargao 4 years ago, so we bought two) stretched between the two willow trees on our 'waterfront'.  Looks and sounds like we both enjoyed ourselves.