Tuesday, 31 May, 2016:
It was the type of weather day that makes everyone who works for the Stockholm Tourist Office extremely proud.
Stockholm on a day like today feels like it is the best city in the world!
My simple goal today was to head out into the suburbs of Stockholm to visit Drottningholm Slott which is still to this day the Renaissance inspired main palace home of Sweden's Royal Family.
Slott is the Swedish word for castle or palace.
It was designed by architectural great Nicodemus Tessan the Elder and work began on it in 1662 at about the same time as Versialles' construction began near Paris.
First I had to take the bus into
Stockholm and see a Farmer's Market
Laurie's Favorites
PSG's and Lisbeth Salander's
favorite frozen pizza
After arriving in the nation's capital, I needed to hop on a Metro and then another bus to get to the palace.
It was easy going.
Scholar guarding the Slott
Drottningholm Slott
Tourist taking pictures
And here I am taking one too.
A Slott Royal Guard
Ever Vigilant
Let's make sure we impress
visitors as soon as they enter
And I was.
Extremely Impressed!
Love these room heating stoves
Love his hair do MORE!
Ceiling Decorations
ALWAY a good idea
The State Bedchamber of
Queen Hedvig Eleonora
of Holstein-Gottorp
Queen Hedvig Eleonora (1636-1715) was married to King Karl X Gustav (1622-1660).
Karl X Gustav was the King of Sweden from 1654 until his death in 1660.
This room is Baroque to the max!
I think that I would look
good in this room
Where did that Lion come from?
Fun with wood
How do they do this?
A young Joe Mollica
and his pet owl
Again, how did they do this?
Or this?
LOVE the hair do/beard on him too.
Blue is good
Another sign of the
Rams return to Los Angeles?
The view of the Baroque Garden
from a Slott window
Again people,
PAINT YOUR CEILINGS!
Tapestries
All Palaces MUST have tapestries!
If you don't believe me, just ask Dr. Indiana Jones.
A Chinese motif
room heating stove
Another fine tapestry
The Royal Logo
Blue Ceilings . . .
. . . highlight my best features
Great mustache!
Yet more ceiling art
Like it
Suns everywhere
Well groomed
Time to leave the Slott
and amble into the Baroque Garden
A Royal Guard stopped this car
to verify the driver's ID before
letting him pass
This tapestry repairman had no trouble getting into the Palace.
The Palce's Theater
Modest Entrance
to the Baroque Garden
The backside of the
Drottningholm Slott
Reading Stop #1
My latest book is
My latest book is
Killer's Art by Mari Jungstedt
During this reading break, there would be several today, she offered this insight on the book's protagonist Detective Superintendent Anders Knutas:
"He threw together a sandwich, but his coffee would have to wait. That was an almost unbearable sacrifice. Coffee was his life's elixir and he needed it to function in the morning."
I'm with you Anders.
Man vs. Snake
Swinging a mean club
at the Hercules Fountain
Tapestries and Fountains
A good Palace always has plenty of both.
See
The Guard's Tent
Commissioned by Sweden's King Gustav III who reigned from 1771 to 1792, this decorative façade conceals a barracks for the Royal Dragoons.
So serene, Reading Stop #2
The Chinese Pavilion
This Pavilion is located at the far end of the Royal Gardens and was built by King Adolf Fredrik who ruled Sweden from 1751 to 1771 as a surprise birthday gift for his wife Queen Lovisa Ulrika of Prussia in 1753.
How did he keep this a surprise I wonder?
Green Room in the Chinese Pavilion
Definitely Chinese
Another room heating stove
One of two Annexes
of the Chinese Pavilion
A Royal plant urn
FIKA TIME in the
Drottninghan Slott Gardens!!!
Reading Stop #3
It's not too fancy, is it?
Time to start heading back to
Upplands Väsby
I could have taken this steamboat back to the core of Stockholm for about $18 USD.
I opted instead to take the bus and Metro back for no additional cost using my Stockholm Access card.
Back in Gamla Stan, Swedes were
enjoying the Sun and some Fika
Gamla Stan is Stockholm's Old Town and much like our time in Lyon, France's old town, the Vieux Lyon, I could go here every day and be happy to get lost again in the maze of old streets.
What is a Slingerbulten?
Narrow Streets lead to a
BIG Church in Gamla Stan
The Riddarhuset
a.k.a.
The House of Nobility
a.k.a.
The House of Nobility
It was built between 1641 and 1674, to be a center for parliamentary assemblies and administration by the nation's governing body.
The back of the new Parliament
Building is on your right
Reading Stop #4
King Karl X Gustav
Travelers awaiting a train at
Stockholm Central Station
After a full day of site seeing, I just made it back on time for our Wäsby Warriors U13 team practice.
All "Skill" position players tonight
Strangely, not one lineman showed up to practice.
Now there is something that you would never see at an American football practice in the states.
Finishing the day with a full
contact 5-on-5 game
It was a full but rewarding day in, no doubt, one of the greatest cities in the world.
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