Palace Het Loo

The Palace het Loo is the Dutch royal family home in Appeldoorn, NL. We drove 40 minutes northwest to reach it.

As we walked into the courtyard past the visitor entrance, we saw what Americans would think of as a mansion. Barry didn't seem too impressed. But when I looked at the map, I realized, "that's just the stables and carriage house." Then we both were in awe.

The "mansion" stables was a u-shaped building. Along the left side building was the stable with many horse stalls. The back part of the U was an exhibition of the carriages used over the years. They ranged from simple covered carriages, to royally adorned ones, to elegant sleighs. The last wing of the building was an exhibit with the historical pictures and timeline of dutch royal family travels and visits since 1907.

As we walked past the gates and saw the actual palace, we were amazed. It was like what you see in a movie...I guess that's where they get the idea for it.

Inside the palace, each room was uniquely fashioned, and filled with antiques from around the world. There were many works of art, intricate tapestries, and unique pieces of furniture.







But our favorite part of the visit was the gardens. We spent as much time in them as we did touring the inside of the palace.

On the left side of the palace was the King's garden. It had an intricate pattern cut out of shrubbery with a fountain in the middle.






Then we walked up steps onto a wall and looked down into the expansive lower garden. This garden was longer and wider than a football field. It held several statues, several fountains, and lots of garden beds with all kinds of flowers and shrubs. Since it's fall, I'm sure we didn't see the full array of flowers, but it was still beautiful.



The upper garden lies behind the lower garden, and is simply raised up higher. It has its own fountain and flower beds, as well as a terrace where visitors can go up to a higher level and look down over all the gardens.

Walking through the lower garden and up to the right side of the castle was the queen's garden, and I can see why it would be known as such. It is definitely where I would spend most of my time. It seemed more secluded, and private. It also had intricate shrubbery patters, but also had a circuit of walkways that were surrounded by ivy covered lattices. It was fun to walk through. I could picture the royal children playing tag through the maze of tunnels.

The royal family stopped living in the palace in the 70s I believe. During World War II, most of the family was in Canada.

It was a beautiful building, but I don't know what it would be like to call it home. It doesn't seem like a home now, but maybe it did when it was daily occupied.