Skoklosters slott

This place was amazing!
It’s a hidden Baroque gem about a 45 minute drive from the center of Stockholm. This place is a very old and unique summer castle from the height of Sweden’s age of power.
I was so surprised at how cool this place was when we showed up! There’s an unfinished ballroom that was closed up and untouched for hundreds of years. It looks like the workers building it just went to lunch and never came back. Apparently, this is one of the only places that you can see a real good example of such a thing.
I also had no idea that there would be such a nice apple orchard open to the public! I recommend going in september or october so you get to pick some of them. We took so many apples home i’m still kinda wondering what to do with them… LOL!
It’s hard to keep reminding yourself how old everything really is! Just looking at the paintings of men standing in their old-​school version of M.C. Hammer pants can help a little, lol! It’s a nice place to take your time wandering around in.
I don’t recommend the «housekeeping» tour other than the fact that you get a glimpse of the large library. They lied and said that they would try to do some english for me on the tour, but they didn’t. I would’ve probably gone on the regular english speaking tour if I had known that. I also feel like it dragged on forever. Everyone with me said she was a weird tour guide who wanted a «discussion» rather than a tour and that she knew hardly anything about history or how to answer peoples questions.
Another downside to the castle was the lack of gardens. They had images with plans for expansive baroque gardens that were not actually on site. It would have been nice to see that either restored or imagined in person. I also think that the «docking area» for ships has been let to ruin and I would have liked to see in its restored state as well. The original home of the castle builder on the sight, which is even older than the castle, was also not available for viewing. Kind of a bummer!
The café staff were pleasant and helpful. I did not think my caesar salad was very exciting. It lacked dressing and was pretty boring. The other people with me got their overpriced waffles. My significant other went back for a second because it wasn’t enough food for a filling lunch. But, we obviously did not come here for the food.
The art exhibits surrounding the halls really didn’t make a lot of sense being displayed throughout the castle and cluttering it up. It made it feel a little cheaper than it would’ve without all that crap. I still don’t understand the artists exhibit that was there at the time. The actual painter that was featured had no real paintings on site. It was just other unknown contemporary artists that were «inspired from his works» so far as I could tell. Strange.
What I thought was the coolest thing in the building was the Armory. It’s freaking huge! They had such an enormous collection on site, I was thoroughly impressed. It’s definitely a must see. I love how everything hanging in a real setting makes it feel so much more relatable than if it were just sitting in a museum. Standing there you could picture being one of the men that could just grab one of those suits and a sword to go do whatever knights go do. :)
VERY COOL!