On Saturday 20 August 2016 I visited Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn once again. The palace is always worth a visit when there is an exhibition, or even more. And due to a foot/ankle injury I hadn’t seen the ones of the Summer of 2016 yet. And I really was only just in time, or I would have missed some of them. Luckily the roof was open too, and in the afternoon the weather was so good that the gardens looked great also.
First stop was the exhibition “Koninklijke Foto’s” (Royal Photos) with lovely photos taken by the Dutch photographer Vincent Mentzel, from official portraits to photos taken during foreign travels. They showed the life of the Royal Family and a time image of the Netherlands during the reign of Queen Beatrix. Often, but not always known, to royaltywatchers. Sometimes funny, sometimes very serious moments. I was only just in time to see them, as the exhibition ended after the weekend.
Up to the roof of the Palace, only open on certain Wednesdays and Saturdays in the Summer, and I hadn’t been there for ages. Remember this was the place where Prince Pieter-Christiaan van Oranje-Nassau, Van Vollenhoven, proposed to his Anita. The weather could have been better, but at least it wasn’t raining.To be honest I didn’t hear much of the stories of the guide, as I was too interested in the views.
Back inside for the fourteen cute summer dresses of the later Queens Wilhelmina and Juliana. All white with embroidery and lace of course … and the little princesses at the time also wore hats, gloves, pretty shoes and parasols. Imagine children in these dresses nowadays. They would be dirty within minutes! The exhibition ran from 7 June to 30 August 2016. There was some information about the time the princesses spent the Summers at Het Loo Palace, enjoying a bit more freedom than in The Hague.
Always enjoyable, also when it is snowing, is the garden, where at this time of the year stil some lovely flowers were blooming.
Still on show – until 23 October – is the exhibition “Dutch Delftware” in the palace gardens. The 45 vases on display in the gardens are produced based on three existing authentic vases from the 17th century, created for the first residents of the palace, King-Stadtholder Willem (William) III and Queen Mary II. At the time they were a very exlusive element and of course there were precious plants in the vases: orange trees and pineapple plants. They are the finishing touch to the renovation of the gardens. However the new ones haven’t been produced and hand-painted in Delft, but by Royal Tichelaar Makkum.
One thought on “Summer at Palace Het Loo”