Portent of the four green Minis

So, eventually, finally, at last, I have a Personnummer. Hallelujah! True to her word, my caseworker sent the letter with the precious number in it. We went over to the house of a thousand steps to collect it. It made me feel a lot more Swedish.

Actually, I was very disappointed at first. I checked the letterbox, but, alas, there was nothing for me. While I was returning the letterbox key to the house, Mirinda watched the postman put something in the box. A bit of the mail was poking out of the flap. She extracted my letter. I was very happy.

We’d popped in after visiting Trosa to do some printing and unsuccessfully collect a prescription from the chemist. We parked in the commuter car park near the Coop. Though, after today, I’m thinking it should be called the Green Mini Carpark. We parked next to one and there were two more near us. All green, three with white roofs. Coincidence or a portent about living in Trosa?

Of course, the discovery of so many green Minis, made me even happier at having successfully collected the all important post. In an excellent mood, therefore, we took a drive out to our local palace, Tullgarn Slott.

The building there today was built in the 1720’s, fortunately just missing out on the great Russian pillage of 1719, but there’s been a house there for a lot longer. It has been the home to many people but, what made it a royal Palace was when Crown Prince Oskar moved in, in 1829.

Then, King Gustaf V spent every summer at Tullgarn Slott with his camera shy wife, Viktoria. They even entertained Czar Nicholas there in 1909.

We have just finished watching The Last Czars, so this slither of information filled in a bit more about the final Romonovs. They visited the slott on the royal yacht, Standart. The building is on a peninsular with water on three sides so, a yacht was an obvious choice. They could just park up out the back and swim ashore.

Oddly, and somewhat rude if you ask me, rather than take up the offer of a suite of recently renovated rooms, Nicky and family opted to spend the night on the yacht. It was a King’s house, after all. They were on a level, in respect to their self importance. Mind you, Nicholas, according to the TV series, was a bit shit.

When you consider that we are currently staying in, what could be said to be a modern Swedish summer house, it’s a bit galling that the Czar refused to stay at Gustaf’s.

Maybe he didn’t like the plumbing. Or Gustaf’s jokes.