Friday, May 16, 2014

Royal Greenhouses of Laeken

One of the first days of May we made an excursion to the royal greenhouses at the Palace of Laeken, Serres Royales de Laeken. The greenhouses are only open to the public for a couple of weeks every year (this year 18 April - 9 May) so it is a very popular destination. We first went there on May Day and arrived around 10:30, one hour after opening. The queue of cars to get to the parking lot was so long we gave up right away. Instead we returned two days later and made sure to get there even before it opened. In retrospect it was very good to be even some of the very first visitors, since we had the pushchair with us in the greenhouse and they can get pretty cramped when they fill up with people. Here comes a cavalcade of photos from these beautiful place (it's a shame not even the park is open all year or at least parts of the year).

The Palace, on our way to the greenhouses

I think the greenhouses as buildings are really beautiful. Design by architect Alphonse Balat.

At a distance I thought the greenhouses were made of copper that was covered by verdigris but it is actually green paint that has flaked off and worn down by wind and rain.

The devil is in the detail?

Cool tree

It seems like all royal parks has an Asian garden.

Inside the green houses

No access to this one except a peak in the window.

More plants than flowers in this section.

Entrance to the secret garden

Chasing a curious one-year-old.


No caption necessary

You can't see it in the photos but many flowers had begun to wither. I think the best time to go is the first week.

The only thing that was perhaps missing were signs with names of plants and flowers.

I like these flowers on both sides of a staircase.

The path ended in the big greenhouse.

9 comments:

  1. Åh vilken vacker botanisk trädgård.
    Älskar sådana.
    OCH sen ska jag säga grattis till huset. SÅ fint det är! OCH gott om rum!
    Där kommer ni säkert att trivas toppen!!

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    1. Det var väldigt fint där men hade nog varit ännu bättre att gå i början av tiden de har öppet för nu hade mycket börjat vissna. Men väldigt fint arrangerat och planerat.

      Och huset är vi väldigt glada för, nu väntar vi bara på alla gäster!

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  2. Fin blogg! Hittade dig via Saltistjejen. Lycka till i nya huset!

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    Replies
    1. Tack! Kollade in hos dig förut och ska kika in igen!

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  3. Åh, vilket härlig blogg inlägg. Vilken vacker botanisk trädgård. Verkligen mastodont. Jag ser nu att barnen har vuxit så jättelycket. inser att tiden går snabbt. Lycka till med huset!

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    Replies
    1. Hej Katta! Dina kommentarer hade fastnat i skräppostfiltret men nu har jag släppt dem fria :)

      Delete
  4. Så fint. Ha en fin sommar!

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous. The flowers look soooOOOooo nice. Colours just pop out. Thanks for sharing. I'm visiting these pics again....

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