The next morning we headed to go see Drottningholm, the current residence of the royal family. I'd been wanting to go for a while since it is one of Sweden's most prominent UNESCO sites. Courtney, Byron, Abby and I headed out over by the city hall to catch a 45 minute boat trip to the palace.
We hung out and had some coffee and pastries on the leisurely trip there. This was our first view of the palace. It was apparently modeled after Versailles. And although the Swedish royal family lacked the funds of Louis XIV, Louis didn't build his palace in a setting like this.
Swedish Royal guard:
The grounds were gorgeous.
The statue is of Hercules. He appears to be clubbing a baby seal.
After a stroll through the gardens we went to a tour of the castle. Henning and his brother Chris, who was visiting from Switzerland, met up with us and joined us for the tour.The interior of the palace had a lot of impressive artwork that told the story of the royal family. It was surprisingly a bit beat up, with some paint chipped and whatnot. Not sure why they couldn't keep it a bit more spick-and-span.
The following building is where the guards slept (this is Byron's photo).
The Kina Slott (Chinese castle) was a gift to the Queen by the King.
The group of us:
After all was said and done we hopped on the boat back, had a glass of wine before it was taken from us (lame!!).
05/18:
The next day, Byron and Abby went out on their own while Courtney and I went to work. The two went to go see the Vasamuseet and the Nordic Museum. After work we all met up and went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Kvarnen where we feasted on a combination of Swedish meatballs, reindeer and moose. Yep, just another normal Swedish meal!
05/19:
The next morning was sadly time for Byron and Abby to go back. We woke up bright and early, and then I took them to the bus station to head back to the airport, and back to the states. :(
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