The view from the family's house and Seanna's cottage.
We began our journey north of Stockholm to Steninge Slott, the palace once owned by Count Axel Von Fersen, alleged lover of Marie Antoinette. When the man at the pub told us about this place, I knew that's where I wanted to go. I've developed a slight infatuation with Marie Antoinette's life since moving to France. I still have my tour to do on her life, to bring you all the history that has captured me. The trip started with a car ride to the metro/subway. Did I mention how great it felt to ride in a car listening to good American music like Rascal Flatts and Mat Kearney? We then had to take a long train ride to the very end, then take a bus to some woodsy area. 
The bus dropped us off along this deserted road. Looking bleak, peeps, looking bleak. At about this time, the clouds started to cover the sky and it became a little dark.
We followed the signs to Steninge Slott, which took us through a residential neighborhood that resembled a Swedish version of The Truman Show.
After getting through the neighborhood, we finally made our way through the allée (French and Swedish for a pathway lined with trees. Do we have an English word for that?). We walked along the long road that gave a wonderful view of the sea and land. It was about a 2km walk to the palace. 
Upon arriving, we had to go into the main building to purchase tickets. Inside the building was a store that carried glasses, bowls, and vases that were all made by the glass blowers. There was a sitting area to watch them make it all, as well. A cafe was calling our names, but we decided to see the main attraction first, then treat ourselves afterward.
Our ticket into the Steninge Slott Palace. It was smaller than a piece of Chicklet gum.
The history of Steninge Slott which doesn't even mention Count Axel von Fersen, but only the original owners.
The doors were closed until the tour guide opened it up for us and another group of people. We walked in and she spoke to us in Swedish. We told her we only spoke English to which she replied by telling us the tour would not be very beneficial to us since it was in the language of the Swedes. She said we could walk around with a paper which told about the palace in English, but that pictures weren't allowed. This is something I just don't understand. I am a documentarian (a rather fancy alternative term for blogger), I must take pictures. I have a slight rebellious nature and took pictures while the camera was hanging around my neck. I think I only aimed one of them. Just know that I risked my life to bring these pictures to you.The entrance of the palace was a faux yellow marble painted wall and a stone staircase. Seanna and I both thought it was a little tacky, but that's just our opinion.
This was the kitchen and it was located in the basement. We acted out how the help lived down there in the dungeon. Seanna would say "So she woke up in this room and walked through the cold corridor and started the coffee kitchen before everyone else woke up..." and that kept us entertained while we were down there.
This is upstairs in the Golden Room. It was a mimic of a room in King Louis XIV's palace. Actually, the entirety of Steninge Slott was designed after French and Italian design and architecture, which you can read on the description above.
Another view of the Golden Room.
The ballroom, which struck us as very small. It was originally all white, but painted in the late 1800s. Big mistake. All of the statues were brought over from Italy.
Looking into the formal dining area called the Leather room. The walls used to be lined with leather, but were replaced with wallpaper during the renovation. The chairs along the wall are original and covered in leather also. The photo was taken from the Tapestry Room.
This room had a name, but I can't remember it. It was full of pink furniture and beautiful paintings. At the end of the room stood a table which originally housed a tea set that Marie Antoinette had given Count Fersen. It has since been removed and donated to a museum.
This is a bad view of the table, but remember it was taken from my camera while hanging from my neck. There is a picture inside to show what the tea set looked like.
The view from the front door of the palace.
The steps are original; blocks of concrete held together by iron.
A picture from my photoshoot with Seanna. The light was not superb at all, but we worked with what we had.
After soaking up all the sights, we made our way to the cafe. Our table was next to the glass wall looking into the glass factory. You can see the kiln on the far wall with the bright orange fire inside. The glass blowers happened to be the most eclectic men I had seen while I was in Sweden. We made our way in to watch after we ate and began to take pictures. The guy in the purple pants loved the attention and even subtly posed for us. He was discrete, but we knew it was for us. He said "You ladies look very professional with those cameras". If you remember, Seanna has the same camera as I. That's actually how we met - she found my blog and wrote me to ask what kind of camera I used and then we became friends. Voila!
I noticed that the Mr. Purple Pants didn't have hair under his arms. It fascinated me because I've never understood why men don't shave it. Really though, wouldn't it just be a better world if men didn't have hair under their arms? This conversation took up about ten minutes of our time, but we got some good laughs from it. Then we decided that he was Swedish and they have fair hair and that was the case with him; he didn't shave it, we just couldn't see it from our distance.
On our way back to the bus stop, we had a little photo workshop. I showed Seanna how to get good manual focus shots on zooming in on things we saw along the road.
Oh and Seanna saw three deer running across the road. If you look closely, you can see them running through the field.
We made it back to the bus stop and noticed that we were out of luck. Two more hours until another bus came. We panicked. She called her boss and asked what to do and read the Swedish on the sign for her to translate. We were relieved to know that it said for us to go across the street for the afternoon service. We had some fun with our cameras while we waited for a long time.
View from the bus stop. It didn't look very promising for us.
Boredom
We finally made it back into Stockholm and back to her car. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up food for dinner - rice, carrots, eggs, soy sauce, peas, and a rotisserie chicken. Teriyaki chicken and fried rice was on the menu. I make it in France all the time and it sounded really good to us.This is something that Seanna's family eats. It's called Blood Pudding and yes, that is what it is. It's pig blood with a little bit of sugar and fat. Yum.
We didn't have corn starch, so I couldn't do the teriyaki sauce, so it was just rotisserie chicken with fried rice. It was still good. Once we filled our bellies, we put our shoes back on and went into Stockholm for a night cap. 
Stockholm was gorgeous and I really do hope to go back again during my lifetime. It's beautiful and reminiscent of Colorado, only very modern and full of blond hair and blue eyes. Thanks goes out to Seanna for making it a wonderful visit.
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