Although the marriage of the Fürst zu Schaumburg-Lippe has unfortunately ended, I still have good memories of my first visit to his main residence, the small town of Bückeburg, not that far from Hannover, Germany. In the days around the wedding on 30 June 2007 my friends and I had a real good time. We did sleep in a nice hotel in the middle of the shopping street, with a very friendly owner. Imagine, they just got internet before the wedding, and we tried it out. It worked perfectly at the time. There were even some wedding guests sleeping in the same hotel. And of course we did some sightseeing, visiting among others Hannover and Stadthagen.
It is interesting to see that everybody in a town like this knows who the Fürst is. And you could easily meet him if he is at least at home. Of course it is rather hard to overlook the palace when visiting Bückeburg, as it is situated near the shopping streets. We saw shop windows decorated on the occasion of the wedding. And even the bakery sold special wedding cookies in Schaumburg-Lippe colours, which we of course had to try. I can’t remember having seen a town being so involved in such an occasion elsewhere, unless it was a real big wedding of a reigning royal. The day of the wedding the street leading from the palace to the church was really packed with people.
The day after the wedding it was easy to get to the court yard of the palace. A friend and I sat there for ages just talking and watching guests arriving for the brunch. And of course we had all the time to have a look at the lovely flower decoration outside. What we talked about? It was the place where we discovered, via a text message, what the name of Princess Isabella of Denmark was, who was christened on 1 July, the day after the wedding. Funny, as her grandfather, Prince Henrik, has in the past stayed at the palace in Bückeburg.
It is really amazing it is already ten years ago. Soon I’ll meet up with the same friends for another big wedding in the area and we might well pay another visit to Bückeburg and its lovely palace.
My photos of this wedding can still be seen here.