Exhibition about Queen Olga

Recently i visited an very intereesting Exhibiton about HM Quen Olga of Württemberg, née Grand Duchess of Russia who takes place from 20.11.2008 - 20.02.2009 at the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart..
There the entire life of the Queen is portraied from her childhood and education to her marriage and move to Stuttgart. On display are her marriage Contract, Letters she wrote to members of her Family in Russia and letters she received from them. The are also paintings from her appartements in the Crown Princely Palais and the Villa Berg booth of them where build for her and her husband.
Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures so i can not present much of them here.
More Informations about the Exhibition (in german) can be found here:

Château de Beloeil

When i was i Brussels in Summer 2008 i also made an Visit to Beloeil where i visited the Château the Residence of the Princely Family of Ligne. They have many connections to the Euopean Royal houses as the present Prince is married to HI & RH Princess Eleonore of Brazil and his mother Alixis a born Princess of Luxemburg, sister of the former Grand Duke Jean. And an aunt of the present Prince, Princess Yolanda was married to the late Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria, one of the sons of the last Emperor of Austria Karl I.
The Château was erected during the 15th Century when the Family de Ligne made it's definitive move to Beloeil. It hten evolved from a monison to a frotress and finally to a Country House. A fire in 1900 destroyed the Château but not the 2 Side Wings before the Courtyard. The Château was then rebuild in 1906. The French-style Gardens go back to the 17th Century.

View from the Castle on the Lake
and the Neptun Fountain

The mirrors

The ladies pond

The Neptune's statue