We spent some of the morning finalising our packing and then Edel took us to the reasonably nearby Benrath Palace (Schloss Benrath).
This is a Baroque style palace that now forms part of the borough of Düsseldorf. It was built for Elector Palatine Charles Theodor between 1755 and 1770. The main building is decorated with elaborate white window frames and ornate skylights and with the pale pink walls which give the effect of a magnificently iced cake. The palace is flanked by two arched symmetrical wings which originally housed the servants but now are museums of horticulture and natural history.
Benrath Palace, Dusseldorf
Gardens, Benrath Palace, Dusseldorf
A large circular pond is directly in front of the palace and behind is a 300m long rectangular ‘mirror’ pond, home to many swans and geese.
The palace is surrounded by a large park originally intended as a hunting area. The fifty hectare park has a circular central garden and radiating from this are four main alleys with interconnecting paths through gardens. One alley way leads directly from the palace to the banks of the Rhine.
Flower garden, Benrath Palace, Dusseldorf
Bee on flower, Flower garden, Benrath Palace, Dusseldorf
One of the other buildings, the so-called Alte Orangerie is now used for community activities and behind it is a delightful flower garden set out in a typically ‘old-world’ fashion with box hedges, fountains and a maze of paths amongst the flower beds.
At 17:30 Edel dropped us off at the Hilden South train station and after a very teary goodbye we headed for the Düsseldorf airport.
Our Airbus A 380 800 plane left at 21:30 and we arrived at Dubai six hours later. After a four hour stop-over in Dubai airport we boarded another Emirates A 380 and arrived in Melbourne some 13 hours later, it now being early Wednesday morning. Tuesday had been pretty much a non-event as far as we were concerned.
After a very short wait in Melbourne we were on our way to Hobart arriving at just on 09:30. Tim, our next door neighbour very kindly offered to pick us up and soon we were home and ready to rest after about 33 hours of travel.
Our holiday was made up of four distinct periods namely our time in Budapest, then our G Adventures travel through some of the former Yugoslavian states, next our Istrian Peninsula cycling and boating trip and finally our four days with Edel in Germany.
We have had an absolutely wonderful time and met so many lovely and interesting people and to cap it off we’ve had the best weather possible with only one wet day and even this occurred while we were on a bus for most of the day.
We are indebted to our travelling companions and all those who helped make this experience one that we’ll always remember very fondly.
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