In the morning we visited the Royal Palace of het loo, the largest of the Netherlands royal family's several palaces. Like Versailles it was originally a hunting lodge but was greatly expanded into a palace in the 1670s by William III and his wife Mary Stuart who became William & Mary, king and queen of England. It is not quite as large or grand as Versailles, but plenty impressive nevertheless. Also unlike our experience at Versailles, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The royal family still uses it sometimes. There is a display of carriages and automobiles in what used to be the stables. Queen Wilhelmina 1880 - 1962 grew up at het loo and lived there for the last 15 years of her life, after abdicating the throne. Below is a picture of the back door and one of the garden. Hitler was very interesting and we spent more time there than we expected.
In the afternoon we drove to another National Park, Weeribben-Wieden, where we rented a canoe and paddled for two hours on canals in a grassy marsh. Not much wildlife but we did see two swans. Swans are actually very common in the Netherlands. Crossing a large canal in the canoe we crossed paths with a young couple in a beautiful Dutch boat. See picture.
Our hotel for the night turned out to be a large campground, but they do have rooms upstairs from the restaurant, and they served us a good dinner. This is the first evening of our trip which we would describe as uncomfortably warm. Fortunately our room has a fan and we can open the window so we have no complaint.
Another good day.
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