Drottningholm

Yesterday, we decided, was the day we would visit Drottningholm which is one of the sites we were most looking forward to seeing during our stay in Sweden. Drottningholm Palace is the official summer residence of the royal family. However, we were most excited to see the Drottningholm Palace Theatre, which was built in the 1760s, abandoned in 1792 when the king was assassinated, and used as storage space for over a century afterwards.

Around 1920, a young assistant from the Swedish National Library was searching for a certain missing painting. During the search someone suggested he look for it at Drottningholm in an old theater which was being used for storage. He took the advice to heart, made the journey to the somewhat remote island, and got permission to make his search. It turned out that he found the painting he was looking for but also realized that he was in an 18th century theater that had been untouched for for a very long time. Over the next few years, the theater was cleaned up and restored to its original glory while keeping all of the 18th century technology in place.  All of the set changes, special effects etc are still done in the 18th century style, i.e. manually. The only concession to the 21st century is the use of electric lighting. This was done for safety reasons and the lights were specifically chosen to simulate candlelight to keep the experience authentic.

We started early which, for us, is around 9:00 AM, bought our all-day transportation passes, and hopped on the excellent commuter train for the ride to Stockholm. At Stockholm Central terminal, we went to an information booth for instructions to find our way to the dock where we were planning to take a boat out Drottningholm. We caught the 11:00 boat and left downtown Stockholm in somewhat dreary weather.

Here some photos from the boat (the trip took about an hour):

Cloudy Stockholm

Stockholm City Hall

Swedish National Archives

The town of Fridhem where we made one of our few stops

Approaching Drottningholm

The Palace from the water

Our trusty craft

The Court Theatre. The excitement mounts.

We went to the gift shop to get tickets for an English language tour of the theater and while we waited for the tour, we may or may not have bought a few books and a scarf for a certain someone who REALLY needed a souvenir from this sacred (in the most humanistic sense of the word) place. We also had time to take a stroll in the English garden.

Part of the English Garden

The Court Theatre from the garden

More Garden

The Theatre just before the tour. Our guide is standing in the doorway.

The door from the lobby to the cloakroom where I stored my backpack during the tour. So unpretentious

One of the bedrooms for guest artists

I wish we still dressed like this. They didn't mention the furry object on the bed.

Now came the highlight of our tour. Our friend Charlotte had told us that at one point in the tour, the guide would ask for a volunteer and, unbeknownst to most of the tourists, that person would get to play with some of the special effects equipment backstage. CJ, of course, was thrilled with that prospect and spent some time before the tour buttering up the tourguide, telling her how special this place is to her (not a lie, incidentally), etc. So when the volunteer was called for, her hand shot up immediately and, of course, she was chosen. As a bonus, a second volunteer was asked for and I thought "why not?" and was also selected. We went backstage and, for the benefit of the other tour members, CJ ran the hand-cranked wind machine and I pulled, or hauled as sailors say, on a rope to cause a box of rocks to shift back and forth upstairs simulating thunder. The effect is surprisingly realistic and it was so much fun! This short video shows how things happen behind the scenes including wind and thunder.

The wind machine. Poor quality photo but it was really dark in there and I couldn't use the flash. Notice the painted fabric on a wooden frame to the left -- these are the flats (the scenery, which can be pulled in and out to change the scenery all at once. Look at the video above and you'll get it.)

The Déjeuner-Salon

Ceiling of the Déjeuner-Salon. Musicians played from the balcony. The railings are only a few feet high so they had to watch their steps.

Cembalo (a harpsichord) made in Stockholm probably by Lars Kinström around 1760. Inside of lid decoration is probably by Erik Hallblad in the 18th century. It was used in the theater from when the theater was built to the 1980s.

200 year old wallpaper

End of the tour

So... after accomplishing our main mission of the Drottningholm trip, we decided to visit the Palace to see what they knew over there (It's a Wonderful Life reference fyi). This turned out to be an excellent choice.

The ceiling in the foyer

The Grand Staircase

The formal Baroque garden from an upper floor of the Palace. A King's eye view if you will.

Below are some pictures from the royal apartments. Queen Lovisa Ulrika had a huge influence on the Palace and was also responsible for construction of the Court Theatre. Coming from the wealthy court of the King of Prussia, our theater guide said Lovisa was bored in Sweden and wanted to liven things up with the theater. Her husband, King Adolf Frederick indulged her.

Queen Lovisa's writing table

Queen Lovisa Ulrika's library (mid-18th century)

The Queen's bed chamber

This room has huge paintings of important battles in Swedish history. Of course, there haven't been any in the last 200 years.

Chandelier close up

 Going back outside we came across this guy.

He's looking at me funny!

The Court Theatre in better weather

The gate to the formal gardens

Yes, that is the Palace

Possibly my favorite photo of the day

The Theatre from the English park

Back in the formal gardens again

One of the buildings nearby

Our military friend again

Swans with babies

Our ride approaches for the return trip

The boats exchange hoots when they pass each other. You can see the steam remnants from this one's greeting.

Back in cloudy Stockholm, we ambled over to Gamla Stan (the old town) and looked around in the shops. Later, we had dinner at an Italian restaurant and headed back to the railway station.

Typical street in Gamla Stan

The Royal Palace in Stockholm. This is where the kingly business actually takes place.

We thought these flowers in front of the Palace were pretty.

A rather elaborate building near the Opera House

We made it back to the station without incident but had a little bit of trouble finding the right train platform. Sadly, there are two different railway companies in Sweden, and you have to find the right display board to find your train. After a little hassle (made worse because the information booths were closed for the day), we found our train and headed north back to Uppsala. Of course, this being around 9:00 PM (or 21:00 Swedish time), it was still broad daylight although the sun was low in the sky. 

We ended the day back in our apartment tired but happy.

Oh, and just because I can, here is a picture of rainbow near our building from a few days ago. Our building is on the left.