19-21 June: Stockholm and Drottningholm, Lake Mälaren

Midsummer’s Day in Stockholm – cold, grey and rainy!!  It really is the worst weather you could imagine for Midsummer – a ‘classic’ Swedish Midsummer, according to some Swedes we met, but this year is certainly worse than most!  We saw a few young women and children with soggy floral garlands on their heads, but everyone looks very damp and the streets are almost deserted.  What’s more, it’s rather like Christmas Day in that virtually everything is closed – museums, galleries and tourist attractions and surprisingly even most restaurants and cafés!

Luckily Jo and I wanted to get a general feel for the place rather than visit museums.  The previous afternoon (Midsummer’s Eve) was grey, a bit drier and much busier and we had enjoyed a self-guided walking tour round Gamla Stan, the old town …

Gamla Stan is lovely, even in the drizzle! – stuffed full of old buildings …

… narrow cobbled streets …

… and traditional Swedish cafés serving coffee and cake …

This is the impressive interior of the Church which forms part of the King’s Palace …

This is Riddarhuset, the House of Nobility, which dates from the mid 17^th century and was originally used for meetings of parliament.  Today Riddarhuset is both a palace and an organisation and its objective is to preserve, maintain, and protect the historical heritage of the Swedish nobility …

Sadly they’ve allowed a six-lane motorway to pass close to all these lovely buildings – here are all the Swedes getting away for Midsummer …

In the evening we went out to celebrate Midsummer’s Eve with a Swedish meal at Café Tranan (The Crane) a traditional restaurant which has been open seven days a week since 1929 and still has some of the original furnishings …

The next day – the really wet Midsummer’s Day – Jo and I explored Södermalm, now a fashionable area of Stockholm and famous from the Stieg Larsson ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ books.  We managed to find a nice little café open – Blooms Bageri on Mariatorget – but only until 2pm!  It was cold, wet and dreary, and the streets were almost deserted, so eventually we gave up and went back to the cosy warmth of the boat!

Jo now had to fly back to UK, and Charles and I set off to explore Lake Mälaren.  We arrived at the first lifting bridge just in time for it to open for us – the boats ahead of us had been waiting for some time …

We motored right through the centre of the city …

… through a lock and under a couple more bridges …

… and in no time we were in Lake Mälaren.  We were very lucky that we didn’t have to wait for either the lifting bridges or the lock – apparently sometimes it can take hours to get into the lake.  At this point, the shores of Lake Mälaren are quite built up and populated – it’s still horribly grey – not a good day for taking photos!

Gradually the weather got better and better and we spent two nights anchored in a lovely little bay …

… opposite Drottningholm – the Queen’s palace and the current residence of the Swedish Royal Family.

It gave Charles the opportunity to do ‘dinghy trials’ and make sure the outboard motor was working – we don’t use it very much here as often you can just tie up to a couple of trees and step ashore!

This is one of the century-old steamers which take visitors to Drottningholm Palace from the centre of Stockholm …

However, we had our own transport so we motored across to Drottningholm in the dinghy and spent a most enjoyable day exploring the palace and its grounds.  The Embroidery Parterre, formed from boxwood hedges, was part of the Baroque Garden laid out in the 1680s and was a showpiece of the park …

This is the Turkish-style Guards Tent which King Gustav III commissioned in 1777 to enhance the park, create atmosphere and unexpected views, and provide a backdrop for Court theatrical events.  The entire façade is in sheet metal, painted to resemble canvas …

Although it was intended to be decorative, the façade concealed wooden barracks for the Royal guards …

Inside the palace, we were able to view rooms decorated in elaborate Baroque and Rococo styles – such as the Queen’s bedroom …

… and the library …

In many rooms the decoration was painted onto wood as a less expensive way to produce impressive effects – all the marble and the decorative ceiling in this stairwell is painted …

Another beautifully decorated ceiling …

This is Kina Slott, the Chinese Pavilion, an elaborate summer-house which was a gift to Queen Lovisa Ulrika from the King …

Each room is decorated in Chinese style in a different colour – this is the Green Room …

… and the Red Room …

This is the Yellow Room with doors opening into the Pink and Green Rooms …

… and here’s the Pink Room …

Upstairs is a pretty music room.  If you stand on a spot exactly in the centre of the room and speak or sing, your voice is amplified and echoes around the room.  It sounds a bit as though you're singing in the bath!  Apparently this effect was deliberately created to amuse the Queen and her guests …

One of the smaller pavilions set apart from the Chinese Pavilion is called ‘The Confidence’ – this is where the Royal family could host private dinner parties without their conversation being overheard by the servants.

This was achieved by an ingenious system of ropes and pulleys which hoisted a table, already laden with food and drink, up through the floor from the kitchens below, so no servants needed to be present in the dining room itself!  The floorboards in the centre of the room would be removed and the ready-laid table appear – if you look carefully you can see a rectangular ‘crack’ in the floorboards round the table.  The two sets of shelves in the background can also be moved up and down to the floor below to be replenished by the kitchen staff. 

Apparently the current Queen still holds dinner parties here occasionally as she enjoys the novelty of the table rising through the floor …

The other amazing thing to see at Drottningholm is the theatre, built in 1766 and still in its original state, the oldest of its kind in the world.  The stage is impressively large, 20 metres deep, and slopes downwards by a one metre drop from back to front.  The scenery of wooden ‘flats’ and backdrops is all manoeuvred by backstage ropes, blocks, pulleys and a sort of capstan – it looked quite nautical!  It’s hard physical work to change the scene and up to 20 stage hands are needed.  The theatre is still used for regular performances today.  We were allowed to create the noise of a storm using the thunder box and a wind machine!

This is Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s own ‘cembalo’ (harpsichord) from the 18^th century with a beautifully painted inner lid.  The wallpaper behind is handpainted and nailed on with little tacks so it could be moved to a different room or house when re-decorating.  Wallpaper was such a luxury even Royal households would re-use it …

Finally, an evening view of the palace and reflections in one of the ponds …

This is sunset over Drottningholm viewed from Astraia’s cockpit – what a difference from yesterday’s awful Midsummer weather!

This is the sunset on our second evening anchored opposite Drottningholm – a really red one – taken with the same camera, same settings at about the same time in the evening … 

Tomorrow we’ll head further into this beautiful freshwater lake – Lake Mälaren is the third largest lake in Sweden and there’s lots more of it to explore.