Sunday, August 14, 2011

Uh.......dwarfs.

B had a surprise for me when we visited Mirabel Palace in Salzburg, but she wisely saved it until we arrived on the grounds---

---there's a beautiful park ringed by statues of dwarfs.

Here's a comment from a travel site about this bizarre place: "The Zwerglgarten (Dwarves' Garden) is a small place in a corner of Mirabell Garden and very popular with children, but also with other visitors. There are about fifteen dwarves, they are about 1,20m - 1,40m tall and depict professions of daily life: A gardener, a salesman, a tradesman...

"There had originally been 28 dwarves, made for Ludwig I, king of Bayern, but he found them so disagreeable
[emphasis mine] that he wanted them to be destroyed. They were scattered to the four winds, but fortunately about half of them could be found again and are now on dislay here. They are made of marble and look very funny and quaint. A nice photo opportunity!"

It took me a few minutes to steel myself to cross the little bridge to the garden but once I convinced myself "they're just statutes...just statues..." I calmed down enough to take these pics:
Well, they're just statues.

But you know, such creatures exist in the wild, and they are crafty. Dangerous. Powerful.

Especially if they have palindromic names, like Bob, Otto, Anna, or Ada.

Beware the Smalls. You've been warned.