Late April-early May is when the royal greenhouses are open to the public on the grounds of the residential palace. I had been the previous year by myself, stumbling upon it by accident, but I wanted to make sure that Jack got a chance to experience it and didn't relish the prospect of going during the busy weekend days. On weekends they are open at night, for some reason.

It's strange that a place that's normally so well-guarded would let the public tramp about for a couple weeks, and in particular at night when it would be extremely easy to dash off the path into darkness when a guard's back was turned, and then live off the fat of the land (fishing in the ponds, trapping small mammals, eating fiddleheads and mushrooms and wild strawberries, finding the crop of wacky weed that the black sheep prince surely grows in a hidden spot somewhere) for a couple weeks until an opportunity to escape presented itself. The darkness also lent a hint of intrigue that wouldn't otherwise be there: no streaming sunlight on the happy plants, and the spotlights often emphasized the plants' forms while the colorful flowers receded into the background, a dramatic role reversal. It was very cool.

Afterwards we walked by the church where the royals are buried and snapped some interesting photos. We ended up going back to the church a week later to visit the royal crypt, which turned out to be an extremely plain subterranean room. No pomp or nothin'. The graveyard surrounding the church is much more worthwhile.