A birthday at Sofiero castle

So, yesterday it was my 24th birthday and we decided to have a little excursion (just to make Isabella's routines wonderfully easy to follow).
The location of our trip was Sofiero Castle, nearby Helsingborg. We decided to go there, despite not being the ideal season (in spring it should be even more beautiful) because I read about it in one of my magazines about old houses and it described the park as born in the same period as our house and of English inspiration. It seemed fitting our "master plan" and it would have been a good inspirational source.

The weather though was not that good, but this turned out to be an advantage since there was basically noone else in the park. There was a lot to watch and explore, but we did go just a quite short stroll, since we arrived a bit later than planned and we still needed to respect some minimal fixed hours for Isabella (the sleep, however, didn't turn out that good).

The park is indeed very beautiful and I enjoyed going through what was described in my magazine and trying to understand how we could improve our garden (in a far far far future). Some parts were very amazing and I can't imagine how it would be to have that enormous park blooming in all directions thanks to the enormoous rhododendrum!

We stopped for lunch at the cafe', since the restaurant was unfortunately closed and the food was ok, but very basic (and a little bit expensive). The view from there was just breathtaking, though!
On the beach of the park it was also possible to see Helsingör and the ferries going from Helsingborg to Denmark.

View from the restaurant

The meridian at the terrace of the cafe'

A big bunch of things to watch, we had to leave for another occasion. We really didn't have time, but maybe they are just peculiar and it was enough to observe them from distance?

Gunilla Bandolin's sculpture can be observed from the cafe' terrace

We did manage to give a quick look at the castle, although I would have wanted to look more carefully, before Isabella tried to jump in one of the rooms and play with one of the old toys. Playing in the royal kids garden houses (with a lot of princess clothing) was not enough, clearly!

Oskar style room

Inside the castle it is possible to observe the three main styles that have been used during its "royal life". The first style, a bit heavier, it is called "Oskar style", thanks to the king who built Sofiero. The style is a bit heavy in colors and decorations and it is from the end of 18th century.

Jugend!

When Gustav VI Adolf and Margareta took over Sofiero 1905, Margareta not only had a lovely touch in the whole garden but "refreshed" the interior with a touch of jugend.
Unfortunately, I couldn't take a better picture since Isabella was ready to jump on the rocking horse there...

Modern Gustavian style

Finally, there was a nice touch of Carl Malmsten and Gustavian style in the last room. Very beautiful. Pity I didn't have time to look at it better!

The castle

This was surely a very short visit. Hope we will manage to organize another adventure in the park when the rhododendrum will be at their best!
Bye bye Sofiero, see you next time!