Day 3
Another adventure awaits. We are taking the ferry to Drottningholms Palace, which was the summer home of many of Sweden’s Kings and Queen; now it’s all year around residence of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia,
The ship is packed in with passengers. We only managed to get inside seats on this sunny day. The trip is an hour from dock to dock. The location has three main attractions, the palace, the palace garden, and the palace theater.
We head for the palace. Who’s not a sucker for a canopied bed? The splendid part of this palace is the two-story entry foyer where 2 separate marble staircases rise to the 2nd floor on each side, and the ceiling paintings in each major room we viewed. These items are impressive. As usual, we use an audio phone app for the tour. The palace is long from the front view, but a large part closed to the public. The bedrooms and open spaces are not fully furnished; none have canopied beds.
Turns out the real treat is the Royal Theater built in the 1700’s on the premises near the palace. The King Gustav III was a nice guy who was less interested in politics and more interested in theater generally and acting and playwriting. The financing to build the theater had major contribution from the Architect of the palace. He kept a large private room at the front of the theater; an apartment or large snack bar area to share with the King, maybe?
The entry into the seating area takes you to the second floor. When you step in your eyes at once go to the stage and the many side panels that are a series of painted props giving a magical aura to the entire area. You must sit down to fully enjoy and take in this vision.
View of the gardens from the palace
The garden surrounds the palace like an 18-hole golf course, long fairways of trimmed lawn sided by mature trees, not an abundance of flower gardens. We leave for the returning ferry that is just approaching the dock.
Upon docking, we at once walk to the Stockholm City Hall for the guided tour. This turns out to be a wonderful experience. The structure and exterior of the City Hall remind us of the church and square in Venice, Italy. The entry to the City Hall holds a courtyard with walls of multiple arches that allow a view of the waters edge. There is a large tower, and brown brick is the exterior finish of the building. Upon entry you walk into the impressive Grand Hall, where the Nobel Prize ceremonial dinner is held. A large staircase connects to a long balcony that runs over half of the sidewall where Nobel Nominees have their walk of fame.
We next walk into a small 2 story tower room with leaded glass windows where curving spires meet at a point in the ceiling. This is striking, and a favorite location for civil marriages we hear; about 90 weddings every Saturday. Next, we directly move into a long beautifully adorned meeting room used for negotiations and state dinners. Finally, we move to a second ceremonial Grand Hall, not as large as the first hall, but the topper. All the walls are adorned with squares of gold leaf and colorful glass creating a fabulous mosaic over the entire room. (Note: the Oslo City Hall that we loved is a very similar structure to this big brother.)
Stockholm Concert Hall
We end the day by stopping at a local café for a late lunch and then jump into an “On-and- Off” Bus to get better bearings, check out other areas of the city and find the excursion locations for tomorrow. We never actually got off this bus but did listen to the audio. We do not use these buses much, but the price was part of our “Stockholm Pass,”so why not.
Last bus stop, we were tired from a long day. We just stopped at the local “Greens to Go” shop to take out fancy salads and went on our way home. Good night.
Nordiska Museet
Entry Hall
Day 4
Today we visit the Nordiska Museet and another Viking Museum, both near the Vasa Museum. Since we know the location passes the harbor we decide to get in some extra steps and walk. The Nordic Museum is a massive building with high spires that you can see from afar. We enter the church like front doors into a completely open interior courtyard the length of the building with exhibit halls circling the space. The staff suggests we view the new exhibit “Nordic Life -500 Years”. As they advertise-it is magnificent, especially with the audio tour that is provided. What makes the exhibit so clever is that each splendid section starts with a narrative story about a family or persons that are affected in the era, then intertwines the displayed artifacts into the storytelling. The exhibit continues around the entire circumference of the museum. See photos below of some of the display cases
We take a break and try the famous “princess cake”, it was good but just cake and cream.
We next moved on to the main floor, another new “Artic Exhibit” was created within a modern freestanding set of connecting rooms that deal with the rapid changes to the Arctic and the factors that effect the change. The displays use innovative technology.
The Viking Museum uses a traditional format for displays with artifacts and storyboards. It is a compact exhibit and worth it to see if the Viking culture is an interest of yours. We like Viking stories but realize they are pirates. Their day job is farming, then they “go Viking” on the weekends. It was a good museum, but we think we are done with viking museums now! (no photos of this one)
We now walk the full distance back to the hotel, stopping to watch the huge pride parade. More sunshine and blue skies, and more steps. We take a break and then visit this Giant Multiplex Movie Theater to watch “The Odessey” in English with Swedish subtitles. Every seat is taken. Good movie. We also noticed that the new Spider-Man movie had the most advertising and seemed packed too.
We are off to Finland tomorrow.
The National Theater (not movies)