Drottningholm Palace Park

11 June 2017

Today, I am going to visit Drottningholm Palace Park. I went to Drottningholm Palace in September 2015 but did not have enough time to explore the Park because it was so huge. 

I just noticed a free library in my neighbourhood as I walked to the bus stop. One can take the books and be interested to see more books in their nearby stall. Interesting marketing skill.

We took the train to go to Brommaplan. In this train station, the tiles have cute images on it. I have planned to go on a guided art walk soon.  

We went directly to the Park and there is no entrance fee required. 

The oldest garden was planted at the end of the 1600s upon the initiative of Queen Hedvig Eleonora. The work was headed by the palace architects Tessin – father and son. This part of the garden is known as the baroque garden and is situated directly adjacent to the palace, enclosed by four lime-tree lined avenues. All the bronze sculptures located in the park are created by de Vries and came to Sweden as booty after wars in Prague 1648 and Fredriksborg 1659.

In the middle of the 1700s a garden was built around the Chinese Pavilion. At this time, the strict, symmetrical garden ideal began to be abandoned for a more natural park. Queen Lovisa Ulrika was inspired by this new line of thought and commissioned the Chinese Pavilion's architect, Carl Fredrik Adelkrantz, to plant chestnut tree-lined avenues around the Chinese Pavilion so visitors could view the landscape. Source from Kungahuset.

We had lunch (bought from ICA supermarket at Brommaplan station) - chicken wraps and carrot juice. It was common to see these sort of wraps as a meal. 

It looked very cloudy but thankfully, it did not rained during our entire 2 hours in the Park. 

Certainly felt like a maze walking inside the Park. You can see a partial view of the Park from the Palace in my 2015 visit.

The Guards Tent located in the garden at the Drottningholm Palace (or better known in Swedish the Kina Slott) is a wonderful blue and white striped tent. The tent was built to imitate fabric and yarn tassels. The wonderful tent used to be the quarters for the solders of Gustav III. It was built in 1781 and designed by C.F. Adelcrantz. The idea behind the architecture was to resemble a tent in a Turkish army camp. Source from Swedish Furniture.

Then, we went inside the small cafe which was close to the Chinese Pavilion. It certainly does look cozy except for the price. We smelt waffles from outside and gawked at the price of SEK50 per piece. I thought paying SEK40 in Halleberg was costly enough. The SEK50 waffle certainly looked the same as the SEK40 piece.  

We headed on to the Chinese Pavilion and I was sad to see an entrance price. Who am I kidding, right? It is considered a UNESCO World Heritage and this sort of places don't come free very often. But I do love the pink colour building and how the trees are neatly arranged. Those gardeners certainly have a tough job of trimming the leaves especially at the top of the trees. 

It costs SEK100 to enter inside, and the entrance fee for Drottningholm Palace has increased from SEK120 in 2015 (my visit) to SEK130 today. Combined ticket of both Chinese Pavilion and Palace costs SEK190. I am sure all these prices will increase soon. 

And that is the boat that brings you from the pier in City Hall to Drottningholm Palace.