First, a new term: “Latte Dads”. We continued to see young men pushing buggies around Stockholm. We were told that rather than maternity leave after birth, there is family leave. Each parent gets 9 months paid leave! Mom is first, then dad. Hence the latte dads are all over the city, museums, and parks pushing their 9-18 month old babies. Alex and I thought that was awesome.
Last day in Sweden, so we took the Metro and bus outside of the city proper to the Drottninghholm Slott or Palace. This was a 17th century summer retreat for the queens of Sweden. The Swedish royalty struggled since they weren’t “absolute” like the French and Russian Kings and Queens and had to haggle and hassle with a Parliament. That is another reason there was so much intermarrying of European Royalty in the 16th and 17th century. Power and alliance first, then prestige and pampering.
The King’s bedchamber. Where the ceremonial tucking-in and dressing would take place.
The “front door” to the Palace. Busy.
A view of the back of the Palace. Acres and acres of landscaping and gardens.
Another interesting sight was the Drottningholm Court Theatre. Its founder King Gustaf, put much of the country’s finances and one third of his time into acting in and developing this opera house, when a group got fed up with his inattention to running the country, they assassinated him and the country forgot about the opera house. It sat idle, abandoned and forgotten until the early 1900’s. It was found to be a time machine from the 1700’s, it was cleaned up, dusted off, and they have resumed staging operas there. All the original sets, trap doors, orchestra pit, etc. have either been reused, or duplicated, very interesting peek into the past.
The library.
Photo out the back window of the gardens.
A shout out to Alex and Hannah for getting us around Scandinavia. Between the travel books, (primarily Rick Steves), maps and phone app, we rarely, if ever, had a misstep or board a wrong bus, train or subway. Our final transit to our fourth country, Finland. Another overnight ferry, with some great views of the Stockholm archipelago as we head north east to Helsinki.
Cheaper than an hotel, but pretty small, above their heads is the bunk, two more on the right.
Another parting food shot. This is what happens when you buy a pizza, then spend a half an hour chasing a bus to the ferry, check into the ferry, then sit down in the cabin to consume, this and another pizza. Hard to hold the pizza perfectly flat. We “combed” the food back on the crust discovering they didn’t cut the pizza either. Luckily, Gloria had her TSA approved pocket knife, (1 inch long) to slice the pie up.
No comments:
Post a Comment