The Royal Palace

I can't imagine ever living in a place as big as the Royal Palace in Stockholm.  The Royal Family doesn't live there today of course (there are too many tourists running around for that...), but I'm sure that their current palaces are pretty good sized as well.

It was really interesting to learn about the history of Sweden through the Royal Family and see a whole lot of Royal things.

We went through the Royal Apartments, the Royal Treasury, the Tre Kronor Museum, and Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities.  I think my favorite was the Tre Kronor Museum.

The Royal Apartments tour was incredibly interesting, but mostly we just learned that all the rooms in there are still sometimes used for important state events, and are for the most part on display for visitors to the museum.  They didn't let us go in all the hidden passageways (which I was bummed about and I think would have elevated that visit above all the rest).

The Royal Treasury was interesting to see because it was sparkly things like crowns and pins and swords, but the lighting was really dim and no pictures were allowed.  It was also a much smaller collection than I was anticipating... I suppose they don't want you to see how many jewels they really have :)

The Tre Kronor Museum was the most interesting because it told the story of the old palace that had burned down and the reconstruction of the "new" (finished in 1754) palace in the same place.  That's where you learned about how the staff got around in the castle and the secret passageways and hidden rooms and false walls.  It also gave a little more insight to how life in the castle used to be.

Gustav's Museum made me feel like I was just back in Italy.  That probably had something to do with the fact that he went to Italy, bought a bunch of statues, and then brought them back for his personal art collection.  After he died the collection was opened to the public and is one of Europe's oldest public museums.  That part was neat.

In between visiting the four museums, we walked through Gamla Stan and found lunch and souvenirs.  Mom and dad are significantly better adjusted to the time change today :)