Monday, September 12, 2011

Secrets of Stockholm

The American Women's Club in Stockholm is celebrating their 100 years of existence this year.  As a result, those of us who are members are getting to do some very nice things.  So on a gorgeous early autumn evening, we headed to a wonderful event at Tessin Palace.  The mansion was constructed between 1694 and 1700 by Nicodemus Tessin the younger.  Eventually the property became the Crowns and today it houses the governor of Stockholm County.  What is so great about this place however is that from the street, you have no idea what lurks behind those walls.  The outer building is very non-nondescript, certainly not one of the architectural gems that dot Gamla Stan, where the palace is located. Until however you enter the front door.  From there this amazing Italian garden and a Baroque style building open before you.  Suddenly you are in Venice or Rome and the effect is quite dazzling.  It is hard to believe that this visual treasure sits demurely across from the Royal Palace where millions of unsuspecting visitors pass by each year!
The Governor's wife welcomed us to her home and then we received a guided tour of the palace, each room ornately decorated and telling its own unique story with the figures on the roof. We were in the company of good friends, the evening was absolutely beautiful and I was happy to have discovered this wonderful secret of Stockholm.  The evening kept getting prettier and prettier and I could not resist taking a shot of the facade from the upstairs rooms with the sky going all pink and lovely in the background. 
We walked out to a gorgeous evening.  The walk home was equally as beautiful as the palace as our jewel of a city on the shores of the Baltic showed off one of its most lovely sides. 

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