Netherlands > The Palace Het Loo

We enjoy breakfast again on the outdoor terrace in the inner courtyard. Unlike yesterday, the sky is completely blue. It promises to be a beautiful day. It’s a pity the terrace is still in the shade. After breakfast, we pack our luggage and check out. The streets are still quiet as we walk to the parking garage. A few kilometers east of Deventer lies the Gosselse Heide. We park the car near the restaurant De Zevensprong. The terrace is not open yet. From the restaurant, we walk onto the Gosselse Heide. We follow a trail through the forest and over the heath. Thanks to the sunny weather, it’s a beautiful environment. The still water reflects the trees like a mirror. It’s wonderful to walk here. After two hours, we return to Restaurant De Zevensprong. It’s twelve o’clock, and the terrace is just opening. We order a drink. In the afternoon, we drive to Apeldoorn.

Netherlands - A small bridge over a pond

Although the museums are still closed due to corona measures, the garden of Paleis Het Loo is open. When we arrive at the parking lot, we see that many others had the same idea. Luckily, we reserved tickets with a timeslot in advance. We’re almost three quarters of an hour early, but this is no problem at the entrance. Stadtholder William III, the great-grandson of William of Orange, had a hunting lodge built here in 1684. When he became King of England, he expanded the palace with pavilions. Until 1975, Paleis Het Loo was inhabited by members of the Royal Family. Today, the palace is a museum. The beautiful Dutch classical garden is neatly laid out and perfectly maintained. We stroll through the beds toward the semicircular colonnades. On Sundays around two o’clock, music is played here. We find it too early to wait for that. At the rear of the palace garden, we enter the adjoining palace park. This area is also part of the Het Loo Crown Estate. Between the palace garden and the park is an entrance gate. Everyone must scan their ticket. Because there is only one turnstile, there are long lines on both sides. We wait patiently. We follow the orange route through the palace park, a walk of about an hour around the large pond.

Netherlands - The spacious palace garden at Het Loo Palace

Along the way, we pass King William III’s bathhouse and the former tea house from the time of King William I. It’s a beautiful place for a walk. At the end of the route, we must pass through the turnstile again to return to the palace garden. The line now seems even longer. Or is the scanner not working anymore? From a distance, security opens the access gate to let everyone through. This saves a lot of time. For people leaving the garden, this might cause problems if they want to come back, but it doesn’t affect us. We head toward the exit. We take a quick look at the stables. Paintings are exhibited under the canopy, but we pay more attention to the old royal cars and carriages in the stables. We can only view them through the windows. Shortly before three o’clock, we are back at the car in the parking lot. We set the navigation for home. This concludes a nice and varied weekend.