Huzzah, I have internet again, thanks to being in my new city which I will post about right after this. So here is my post for yesterday 8/8/2018.

Well, the lightly anticipated announcement is here. I’m in the city of Schwerin (pronounced shvair-een). Capital of the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. It has a long and important history with the royal families (mainly the “Seat of Mecklenburg-Schwerin”) of Germany, particularly during the years of Prussia and the German Empire which ended shortly after WW1. So of course, no city that had a royal family could be without a palace, and Schloß Schwerin is quite a nice one! Now, being a big fan of palaces and castle I did what only seemed natural. I went… the the giant inflatable fun land right next to it.

Ok, not really, but the palace is really damn nice, it lies on a small island in the large Lake Schwerin, with two bridges connecting its western and southern entrances. Copies from Wikipedia:

For centuries the palace was the home of the dukes and grand dukes of Mecklenburg and later Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Today it serves as the residence of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament

Major parts of the current palace were built between 1845 and 1857, as a cooperation of the renowned history architects Gottfried Semper, Friedrich August Stüler, Georg Adolf Demmler and Ernst Friedrich Zwirner. The castle is regarded as one of the most important works of romantic Historicism in Europe and is designated to become a World Heritage Site. It is nicknamed “Neuschwanstein of the North”.

In 1913 there was a major fire, and a lot, but not all of the palace was ruined. It’s been restored, and you can now tour through some of the rooms, from the dining hall, the throne room, the smoking room, and the weapons storage room. I’ll let the pictures at the bottom do the rest of the speaking.

After that I crossed the southern bridge into the Palace Gardens which were pretty cool, and very large, there is a long shaped lake with statues lining the edges, walkway tunnels under large plants and lots of trees planted in grids. Nearby in a foresty park area is the “Schleifmühle,” a very old stone cutting mill powered by a water wheel. The water wheel turns a large gear with a piston pushing and pulling a massive blade that slides back and forth very, very, very slowly cutting into large granite, or whatever stone slabs. It was also incredibly loud, and people would go deaf after just a few weeks. Some of the stone from the palace was cut here at this mill. On the second floor is a bunch of old artifacts and displays from the mills history.

After that I walked back around the palace to the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, a neat art gallery. Another one containing some old Rennaissance masterpieces, as well as another dumb “modern art” section, and another section featuring art from East Germany. I visited then the Schwerin Cathedral of Saint Mary and Saint Johannis. It was pretty neat, mostly just really big. Then I came back relatively early to relax for the rest of the day.