This past Saturday the annual flag- and celebration day of the monarch took place in Belgium, the so called Fête du Roi (King’s Feast). This day falls on 15 November each year. This time almost the whole Royal Family attended, only Queen Paola was absent as it was reported that she was at home with a flu.
King Albert instead escorted the widow-Queen Fabiola up the stairs to the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels where the day was started with a Te Deum led by Cardinal Danneels, Archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen. At his side the King also had his children Crown Prince Philippe with wife Mathilde, Prince Laurent with wife Claire and Princess Astrid with husband Lorenz. Usually King Albert does not attend the mass, but since he celebrates 15 years on the throne this year, he made an exception.
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Princess Máxima of the Netherlands kicked off a busy week on Monday by opening The Dutch Bank’s (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) exhibition “Your money & Your Life”, aiming at showing young people how do deal with money, at the visitors centre of their headquarters in the Hague. On Tuesday she arrived to Paraguay, South America, were she is currently attending the Inter-American Forum on Microenterprise (FOROMIC). The Princess also visited a school tied to the Aflatoun Child Savings International campaign. See more pictures here, here and here.
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit arrived on a three-day county tour of Telemark on Tuesday, taking them to several municipalities were they met with inhabitants and were showed the best of their culture, traditions, business and innovations. The Crown Princess began the tour by appearing in a lovely autumnal green two-piece suit, nicely reflected against the autumn foliage of the town of Notodden, as the couple enjoyed a program of lectures and cultural programs before attending a dinner in the evening. Her chivalrous husband gently lent her support before anything embarrassing happened as one of her heels accidentally got caught in a bridge as they were posing for the large media entourage accredited for the tour. See more pictures here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Denmark’s freshest royal, Princess Marie, passed her first attendance at the opening of the Danish parliament (Folketinget) with good grades on Tuesday. Unlike Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik whom have both been seen nodding off to the Prime Minister’s lengthy speech listening from the royal box above the floor of the parliament in earlier years, Prince Joachim’s wife got many kind words from Danish media as they noted that she listened attentively throughout the speech and sat straight up throughout the event. Prince Henrik was seen polishing his glasses several times while Queen Margrethe kept studying the ornate ceilings. Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary sat close together and seemed to be having an internal agreement about things as they smiled and nodded at each other. See pictures here, here and here.
In Belgium’s capital Brussels yesterday, King Albert received the French-Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who was earlier this year freed from being a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for six years. Betancourt has put her political future on hold for now as the settles back to normal life and tours the world to meet with world leaders and advocate for the international community not to forget the other hostages who have not yet been freed. Recently she also met with King Juan Carlos of Spain and later this year she will receive the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord from Crown Prince Felipe’s hand.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has been keeping very busy as of late. On Tuesday she visited the south-western region of Zeeland. Dressed in a beige coloured cape to keep the autumn chills on a distance, the Queen was met with flag-waving people in the village of Breskens were she toured the harbour area and was informed about its developments which includes the construction of a new marina and improvements of the sea wall. She also visited the internationally renowned company Hall Spars & Rigging, makers of sail boat equipment, receiving a tour of their factory and chatting with employees. The villages of Groede, Cadzand-Bad and Sluis were also on the royal agenda for the day. Yesterday Queen Beatrix was out and about again, this time to open Statistics Netherlands new headquarters for the Central Office for Statistics (CBS) in Leidschenveen-Ipenburg. See more pictures of these events here, here and here.
Meanwhile in Spain, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía together with the Prince and Princess of Asturias welcomed The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, often titled the King of Malaysia while in Europe, and his wife, the Raja Permaisuri Agong, the Queen of Malaysia, along with some of their family members. The Spanish royals hosted a private dinner for their guests at the Zarzuela palace outside Madrid.
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01 18th, 2007 |
no responses Yesterday, on Wednesday 17 January, Their Majesties Queen Silvia of Sweden and Queen Paola of Belgium joined a powerful group of women at the Élysée Palace in France were their First Lady, Madame Bernadette Chirac, was hosting a meeting of the Honorary Committee of the International Centre for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children.
Attending the meeting were also First Lady Laura Bush, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak (wife of Egypt’s president), Mrs Jolanta Kwasnieska (wife of the former Polish president), Mrs Maria Margarida Sousa Uva Barroso (wife of the European Commission President), Mrs Lyudmila Putina (wife of Russia’s president) and the Governor of St. Petersburg, Mrs Valentina Matviyenko.
The day consisted of a press meeting, a plenary session, a reception and a dinner.
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