Day 60, Drottningholm estate,Sweden

We are now flying over Sweden.....where my dear friend Merja is waiting for us....

Hii Merja......
What are the plans for today??

Oh, yippee, another boat ride....aboard a boat from the turn of last century .....and we are going to cruise along along Lake Malaren to Drottningholm,the Swedish summer palace set in magnificent gardens.

Drottningholm was named after John III who constructed the palace for his wife Katarina Jagellonika.
The palace burned down in the end of the 15th century and the construction as we see it today was continued by Hedvig Eleonora's architect Nicodemus Tessin in 1661.

Many royalties have since then contributed with their unique touch to the palace, making it Sweden's best-preserved palace built in the 16th century representing European royalties and architecture from that era.

This is truly a magical place.........the exotic Chinese pavilion, the court theatre and the magnificent royal park, the entire Drottningholm estate is a unique cultural treasure.....

After a guided tour of this magnificent place, we finished off the day by watching Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppa in the magnificent Drottningholm Theatre.

Now a UNESCO world heritage site, the stunning theatre still uses the original eighteenth century stage sets and mechanisms, and seeing an opera here was an experience of a lifetime.