A Day At The Summer Palace

Today we are touring Drottningholm Palace, commissioned in 1662 by the dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora as her summer castle on Lake Malaren.  In 1991 Drottningholm became the first Swedish site to be included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List and consists of the Palace (two floors of lavish rooms where Swedish royalty did their best to live in the style of Europe’s divine monarchs) , Palace Park which is laid out in three main styles (late 17^th century French-inspired Baroque Garden, mid-18^th century natural park and late 18^th century English park), The Palace Theatre (built in 1766)  which is fully operational using its original hand-painted sets, sound effects, hand-operated stage machinery and instruments (There are only two of these Theatres in existence today, the other is in the Czech Republic) and the Chinese Pavilion built in  1769 (one of the world’s best preserved rococo environments with Chinese elements).  For us mere peasants, we took a one hour trip aboard one of the four turn of the century ships that travel from Stockholm to the Palace.  It was another hot and sunny day so we grabbed a couple of seats on the uncovered upper deck to enjoy the breeze and watch the beautiful natural and man-made scenery, an amazing amount of boaters and thousands of on-shore sunbathers as we made our way to and from the Palace.  It was a wonderful way to end our time in Stockholm.  Tomorrow we pack and head for the cruise ship terminal to start our seven-day cruise aboard the Seabourn Quest.   

Stockholm's majestic City Hall and 348-foot tower was built in 1923 and needed 8 million bricks to complete.  We caught the  boat at the pier that will take us on our one hour journey to the Summer Palace.

Some of the impressive buildings along the shoreline.

 The impressive front view of Drottningholm Palace as seen from the boat just before docking.

 Standing in the middle of the 17th century Baroque Gardens with the Hercules Fountain and the back of the Palace behind us.

 

The Chinese Pavilion built in 1769 and located away from the Summer Palace served as a retreat for the King and Queen when they wanted to withdraw from public life.  Even when dining they could eat on their own as the kitchen staff delivered the food and drink on a dumb waiter system from an adjacent building.  

 

 
A view of Old Town Stockholm just before docking.