Felsengarten Sanspareil & Schloss Fantasie

The weather in Bavaria is so unpredictable, last weekend it was 50 degrees, rainy cloudy and cold, this weekend it was beautiful 75 degrees and not a cloud in sight! Since the weather was beautiful we decided to take advantage of it and head out to check out Castles, Palaces and just hang out outside with Rylie.

I've been wanting to check out these two places for the longest time. But of course, things happen and we never got around to it. The Felsengarten is located about 20 minutes west of Bayreuth.

The rock garden is open all year round. The exhibition rooms of the castle and the museum Zwernitz in Oriental Building can be visited from April to October for an additional fee. The garden includes the existing rock structure of the Franconian Jura and the medieval castle Zwernitz.

The drive wasn't too bad, it took us about an hour to get there. I found an address online and it took us right to the parking area. Once we arrived we were lucky enough to get parking right in front of the entrance.

 

 Caught them taking a selfie! haha

 

There are a few paths you can choose to reach the theater. We chose the quickest path. Haha. It was an easy walk. The path way was pretty smooth and we just followed the signs to the theater. 

There were lots of places to stop for photo ops. We even found a tree that had the initals T & A carved in it. It was fate! 

 

The theater was the coolest part of the Rock Garden. There was a family playing tag when we got there and we waited until they cleared out so we were able to get some pictures

After checking out the garden area, we headed off to see Burg Zwernitz. The castle being included in the concept of rock garden was obvious because the rock formation had their highest formations there. The daring position of one of the buildings above a wide overhanging rock shows how the limestone cliff was transferred to the architectural design and increased in an exemplary manner. The curvy walls of the castle closely follow the curves of the Castle Rock and avail as the specifications of the available land. We didn't get to see inside of the castle, the gates were closed, and because we took Rylie with us I knew we wouldn't have been able to bring her in with us. So I settled for checking out the outside.

After leaving the Felsengarten we decided to check out Schloss Fantasie. Since this palace is located in Bayreuth, it was literally on our way home. I've wanted to check this palace out for a long time, but we never got around to it. we figured since we had a little bit of time to kill we would stop off on our way home.

 Once we got into the town, there was parking upside the hill for the buses and next to the Palace was a Hotel, which had some parking, it was completely full, so we turned around and headed to where the buses parked. Come to find out if we had continued down the road we would've found the parking lot. But it worked out for us in the end. If we parked where the parking was, we would've had to take the long way to see the palace.

The grounds were pretty impressive. Lots of fountains and open spaces, Rylie would've loved to run around here. We were pretty tired by the time we made it to Schloss Fantasie, so we didn't explore the grounds too much. But if you have the time, and you like touring around castle grounds, Schloss Fantasie is the place to go! If you see in the picture below, Schlosspark Fantasie has long trails, and a plethora of fountains, lakes, open fields, ponds, pavillions, etc. You could easily spend an entire day here alone!

We had a great day just exploring the outskirts of Bayreuth. More and more often, we find things to do in the surrounding area! Hopefully the weather holds up. I can't wait to visit all the other locations I have saved on our "day trips" list.
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Felsengarten Sanspareil:
Address: Sanspareil 34, 96197 Wonsees
Cost: Gardens Free/ Entrance to the Castle 3.50
Pet Friendly

Schloss Fantasie:
Address: Bamberger Straße 3, 95488 Eckersdorf