A weekend getaway - part one of two - the palace

Ever since my last vacation in January I had not really been on any fun overnight trips. Well yes, to family or friends of course and daytrips to the mainland for shopping and such, but nothing just for exploring and filling the well with new impressions. So it was high time I went on one and I finally got to go last weekend and it was fabulous!

I stayed in the city of Apeldoorn in a rather luxurious hotel near the former royal palace Het Loo, which is now a museum showing how the Dutch royalty lived in this palace for many years. I decided to visit the palace, its gardens and the park around it on my first day there and the next day I went to the big annual book fair in the nearby city of Deventer.

In this post and the next I'd like to give you a photographic impression of that trip. Please keep in mind the weather was often very cloudy, so not every picture turned out as bright as I would have liked, but I think you will get a good idea of where I was anyway.

Today I'll just show you an impression of the palace and it's gardens. Hope you enjoy!

One of the roads that leads to the palace.

The palace at the end of the above road.

Inside the royal stables. Only one horse was still residing there.

I just loved the look of all these keys.

Inside the stables. I love the lettering and the clock.

The gallery next to the stables on a rare people free moment. It was actually quite busy.

The stables from the outside. This is just one wing of them.

Onto the palace.

Close up of entry. By the way, us commoners had to take the steps down and did not enter through that majestic door.

The gardens were the best part of the palace if you ask me.

There was Delft's Blue china scattered around the garden. It was part of a special exhibition.

My favorite part of the gardens was this covered walkway that was almost like a maze.

It led all around a little garden in the center of it. I thought of the book 'The secret garden' while walking it.

An overview of half of the gardens at the back of the castle.

At the end of the gardens are these colonnades.

The place also has several fountains.

The collonades from the other side. I sat underneath them with some very nice ice cream!

The castle and part of the gardens from the other side. The sun had come out as you can see.

Although there was a whole tour of the inside of the palace which was very beautiful I did not take many pictures there, mostly because it was very busy and the lighting was not great for my phone camera. Still I think you can get a bit of an idea of the grandeur of the place.

It was lovely to roam around the gardens and discover little gardens within the bigger ones. Can you believe this was like a summer house for the royals?

The funny thing is that even though the palace itself is huge, the rooms inside were quite cosy and compact. I guess the Dutch royals enjoyed a bit of snugness just like the rest of us. :-)

In my next post I'll show you the park surrounding the palace gardens and my trip to the book fair. Until then I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day!