I have to make a confession: I didn´t really visit this site on my first attempt. But that was not my fault: everything in Sweden seems to close down for the winter, even if it is such a beautiful sight to see places covered in snow. So I just got on a bus to Drottningholm (15 minutes from Stockholm), took some pictures and left with the next bus.

Superficially, the palace looked better than I had read about. Probably it´s the inside that´s boring (another European castle), but the location near the water is great.

12 years later I made up for it: I had some time left after visiting Hovgarden, which lies about 35km up the road from the palace. The weather was sunny enough to try and get some better pictures of the site.

I arrived at about 4 p.m. - actually too late to get inside the palaces (which close already at 4.30). So I wandered around the gardens, much further than I had on my first visit. What struck me was how much it resembles Versailles.

I got as far as the Chinese palace and the remarkable Guards' Tent. Both buildings are worth a quick look for their quirkiness, but in all this site still did not win me over. After Versailles, and even Potsdam, this almost looks like a reproduction.