All About Royal Families

In June 2024, we had the chance to travel to Florence in Italy (Firenze).  We expected a lot from this amazing city but it more than lived up to the high expectations. We "knew" Florence a bit because of the royal family de' Medici, but the city offered much more royal destinations and royal history. I will tell about this in the coming weeks and months on this blog. In Firenze we saw interesting portraits and we "met" important figures in royal history. I'm still sorting out the many pictures we took. So, I hope you will enjoy my coming posts and video's!  By the way, let's hope the summer will last a bit longer. 

Our 3rd. Royal Palace visit took place on January 7th. 2024 in The Hague.  Then we visited the Lange Voorhout Palace and the exhibition "Escher in het Paleis".  Some History The Lange Voorhout Palace in The Hague was designed in 1760 by the architect Pieter de Swart for Anthony Patras (1718-1764), a deputy to the States General of the Netherlands. In 1796 the mansion was bought by Archibald Hope (1747-1821), a manager of the Dutch West India Company.  Archibald was a cousin of Henry Hope and Jan Hope and involved in the family banking business. In 1808 his wife died.  Napoleon and his wife on their travels through the First French Empire used it one night. The inventory was sold in December 1821 and lasted more than two weeks.  The building was bought by Renaud Diederick James de Ginkell, 7th Earl of Athlone (1773–1823), married to a daughter of John Williams Hope. In 1831 the Minister of Foreign Affairs Johan Gijsbert Verstolk van Soelen (1776-1845) moved in. H...

In August 2023 we visited Buckingham Palace for the very first time and it was - as the ticket told us - a very royal day out. Buckingham Palace is recognised around the world as the home of the monarch, the focus of national and royal celebrations, as well as the backdrop to the regular Changing the Guard ceremony. Buckingham palace is open for public for 10 weeks each summer. This year it is from Friday, 14 July to Sunday, 24 September 2023. A visit We booked a Royal Day Out for two persons. So we were able to visit the State Rooms, The Queen's Gallery and the Royal Mews.    On a rather grey day we finally got the chance to visit Buckingham Palace. We could spend lot of time and there was plenty enough to see. First we visited the Queen's Gallery In 2023 there is a fantastic exhibition about dressing the Georgians. It felt like Bridgerton. Then we visited the Royal Mews, were we saw cars, the carriages, the coaches and of course the horses. And last but not leas...

Kortrijk sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. In the Middle Ages, Courtrai grew significantly thanks to the flax and wool industry with France and England and became one of the biggest and richest cities in Flanders.  The city is often referred to as City of Groeninge or City of the Golden Spurs, referring to the Battle of Courtrai or the Battle of the Golden Spurs which took place on 11 July 1302 on the Fields of Groeninge in Courtrai.  In 1820 the Treaty of Kortrijk was signed, laying out the still-current borders between France and Belgium. Throughout the 19th and 20th century, the flax industry flourished and remains important within the Belgian textile industry today. To be honest, I only knew Kortrijk due to its railway station and the  direct train ways to Oostende, Bruges, Roeselare and other cities in the region. I never stayed in Kortrijk before. Huge time to search f...

In November 2022 there was a lot to do about an article in the French newspaper Le Parisien. It stated that there was a robbery in the appartment of Queen Paola of Belgium in Paris.  Not much later, the newspaper retracted that report and reported that there was "ambiguity about the identity of the owner".  picture taken in November 2022 in Rome After which the spokesman for the royal palace also responded and reported that Queen Paola has no apartment at all in the district where the theft took place.  "The original article of 'Le Parisien' that linked the theft to an apartment of the Queen is therefore incorrect," the palace concluded. However Queen Paola of Belgium and King Albert II of  Belgium have other properties than their Belvédère Castle in Laeken, Brussels.  They would have residences in Châteauneuf-Grasse (France) and in Villers-sur-Lesse (Belgium). But also an apartment in Oostende (Belgium) and an apartment in Rome.  picture taken in...