Drottingham palace, Marieford

We picked up our rental car from a rental car agency which was only 1.6 k from the house. When we showed up they told us that they had no cars. After I told them we had travelled all the way from Canada and that we would take any car we mysteriously got a Kia Niro. We went back to the apartment picked up the children and headed off to Drottingham palace. It was supposed to have been a 12 minute drive but despite having a GPS we got terribly off course and ended up driving through a tunnel under central Stockholm. It took us about 50 minutes. Drottingham palace is the home of Sweden's King. It is known as the Versailles of the north which is probably a stretch. It is unique to Europe as it is one of the only royal palaces one can tour. I guess the Swedish king must be short of cash and needs a side hustle. It is probably only a matter of time before he opens up an Airbnb. We checked out the palace gift shop and wandered around the grounds. Interestingly we bumped into an old colleague of mine, Mr Toilet paper holder man. Initially I didn't recognize him, a common problem that befalls pathologists not being able to recognize tumours out of context. He told me he needed a break from all the crap he has to put up with at work. The most impressive thing we saw in the gardens was this collection of Geraniums. There must have been 60 different species many of which I had never seen or heard of before

Drottningholm castle is on Lake Malaren, a huge lake just west of Stockholm. We decided to drive to Mariefred home of Gripsholm castle. Mariefred was a very pleasant lakeside summer resort town with a beautiful brick castle and grounds. We went for a swim in the lake just down the lake from the castle before touring the castle grounds and gift shop. There were some beautiful Rune stones in the gardens dating back to 1100. Rune stones were memorials that Vikings made to memorialize lost family members often with poems.

All in all a very full day.Read more