Museum day - Part 3

The last museum stop was Ledaal, built as a summer house by the wealthy and influential Kielland family in 1803. Now it is a museum, plus the Royal Residence when the king visits Stavanger, (though he sleeps in a hotel where there are better amenities) and also a reception space for important events. It is one of the most beautiful Empire style homes in Norway. Just as at Breidablikk, the reception desk had guide books in English to loan, but as we only had 20 minutes before it closed, one of the staff gave me a guided tour in English - he was from Hungary but had studied in NYC.

The king's bedroom is on the ground floor, and even though they lengthened the bed for the tall king, he rarely sleeps there. Upstairs are the beautiful reception rooms. There are strong Napoleonic motifs, as well as distinctive dark panels painted above the doors which were inspired by the then recent discovery of Pompeii. Several of the doors open to brick walls, they were added solely to give the rooms symmetry.

On the third floor is the chimney from the ground floor kitchen cooking fire, which has to spiral to pass between the roof timbers. My guide especially wanted me to see that before the museum closed.

One last stop before we returned home to another very good meal - Thommas's office.