CastleMemory: Vaxholms Fästning

Let's have a walk down memory lane to 
a Swedish holiday of my teenage years
and Vaxholms Fästning near Stockholm.


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The Royal Limbo: Kate vs. Meghan, Round 2

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Confession of this Castleholic: I do not generally follow the British Royal Family. However, moving on Royal Twitter it is hard to miss their latest events, especially on a day like this week when there is a christening going on. Second confession: I actually thought that I had said everything that needed to be said when I wrote "Kate vs. Meghan: Feuding Princesses - A Tale As Old As Time". But guess what: I just need to get a few other things of my chest that have been seriously annoying me. 
Please, give me one good explanation why people constantly feel need to criticise the Duchess of Cambridge to prop up the Duchess of Sussex - and why do people have to put down the Duchess of Sussex in order to put the Duchess of Cambridge on a pedestal?! I'm begging you, I just need one! I understand that they aren't the first royal women who have been pitted against each other, but with everyone being able to vent their opinions at any time to dozens, hundreds or even thousa…
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Schloss Landestrost

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Truth be told, there aren't a lot of splenderous castles to be found around Hanover, the town where I live. By the time Baroque became en vogue, the Guelphs had adopted the concept of primogeniture instead of the division of lands between several sons thus not needing several residential towns anymore - and in 1701 they also got hold of another throne in addition to the Electorate of Hanover, thus making a move to London necessary and some of Hanover's rulers never even made it across the channel to mainland Europe to see their ancestors' home.  There are, however, several Renaissance-style castles in the area though most of didn't have a royal use anymore even during the last decades of the monarchy. One of them is Schloss Landestrost in Neustadt am Rübenberge, just north of Hanover. The castle owes its existence to Duke Erich II of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Erich "the Younger" ruled the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen, one of the several Guelph principalitie…
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Royal Wedding in Hanover: The Guests (Part 1)

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Today in Hanover, Hereditary Prince Ernst-August of Hanover married Ekaterina Malysheva. Here are some of the guests, in no particular order... Margrave Max and Margravine Valerie of Baden, née Archduchess Valerie of Austria, with their son Prince Michael and his wife Princess Christina of Baden.  Count Friedrich of Ortenburg and his wife Countess Christine, née Baroness of Wangenheim, with their sons Max and Albert, who were two of the page boys. Count Karl of Solms-Laubach and I presume one of his daughters.  Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo. Another picture of  Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo.  Prince Georg-Friedrich of Prussia and his wife Princess Sophie, née Princess of Isenburg. Another picture of the couple. Prince Heinrich of Hanover, uncle of the groom, his wife Princess Thyra, née von Westernhagen, and their sons Prince Albert and Prince Julius.  Another picture of Prince Heinrich and Princess Thyra of Hanover. Prince Andreas and Princess Alexandra of Leiningen. She is a bo…
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