Swedish royals enjoy Olympic success

What a fantastic start King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Prince Carl Phlilip have had on their stay at the Olympic Games in Canada.

After arriving from a long haul flight their schedule started off with watching the Swedish curling ladies beat the Chinese team 6-4 late night Friday local time.

On Saturday they continued on to watch Anja Pärson, who had a scary crash just a few days ago and is suffering injuries while trying to stay on competing in what is believed to be her last Olympics, in the ladies Super-G. Pärson’s brave attempt to claim her 7th Olympic medal did not pull through. She ended on an 11th place after a small mistake early in the race, and afterwards said that she had problem with the feeling in her legs.

On the VIP stands the Royal Couple and the Prince met Prince Albert of Monaco and his girlfriend Charlene Wittstock.

Seated a little bit in front of them were also the German high aristocratic defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and his wife Stephanie, born Countess von Bismarck-Schönhausen.

The royals stayed active on their seats, both the King and the Prince took photos and the King and Queen took turns looking through binoculars. (more…)

Victoria & Daniel’s wedding stamp OK

Already earlier in the winter, Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling approved the photo and design of the stamp that will be issued in time for their wedding in June this year. On Thursday (18 February) they visited the Swedish Post’s offices in Kista outside Stockholm to see the outcome of engraver Lars Sjööblom’s work and the printing process which is now under way. The result? We normal people have to wait to see it until 13 May when the stamp is officially presented.

Denomination will be 6 SEK, meaning domestic, but with two stamps one can send mail with the future Crown Princess Couple wherever in the world one may want too. No photographers were allowed to cover the couple’s inspection visit so there are not many photos apart from the Post’s own one, but click here and you can see a few taken outside the building in connection with their visit.

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Official royal dinner in Sweden

Last Thursday, 11 February, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia hosted an official dinner at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. Every winter they host a series of three official (in Swedish called representative) dinners for official Sweden. Because of the upcoming royal wedding in June it seems they have cut down the number of them this year and the one on Thursday was therefore called “the official dinner of the year” instead of the first or second which it would’ve been if things were normal. (more…)

Drottningholm in winter robes

The fantastic royal UNESCO World Heritage Site Drottningholm is probably associated with summer more than it is with any other season. Beautiful summer days, magnificent water fountains, lush green hedges and grass, frying direct sun over the open park, boats passing by in open water. And that’s also how it’s most often photographed. But Drottningholm in the winter is like a fairy-tale landscape, as was my experience last Saturday when I first saw it nestled in the snow.

The stunning palace, the cultural jewel of the Drottningholm Palace Theatre and all the other important and beautiful historic buildings and the huge park were all covered in white. The large fountain was at rest, the trimmed hedges were neither green nor particularly visible, and the water frozen. Everything laid in a beautiful quiet winter rest. But alone in the park, I was not. We were quite a few brave Saturday walkers who took a round through the park, some children went sledding and a few people skied as well.

Festive concert at the Concert Hall for Victoria and Daniel

There will be no golden glittering gala performance at the Royal Opera on the evening before Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling’s wedding in June. Instead, the Parliament has ordered a festive concert to be held in the Concert Hall at the Hötorget square in the centre of Stockholm on the evening of 18 June. (more…)

Queen Silvia opened care accommodation “Bernadotte” in Uppsala

Yesterday afternoon the Queen was in Uppsala to open the city’s new care home Bernadotte, while also symbolically opening three other care homes which were built on different locations within the municipality during 2009.

The name of of the care homes derives from the fact that the Bernadotte Folke Bernadotte Home, today the regional rehabilitation unit for the Uppsala-Örebro health care region at Uppsala University Hospital, was previously located on the same spot. Bernadotte has 80 apartments of which 40 of them are for people suffering from dementia illnesses. During the construction process, special care was paid to information coming from dementia research concerning things like orientation plan, colours, furnishings and the like. It also has a garden where the residents can feel, smell and experience nature, something that has proved to be very important for dementia patients. (more…)

Gunnar Brodin, Marshal of the Realm, 1931-2009

Gunnar Brodin passed away on Christmas Eve 24 December 2009 at an age of 78. Behind him he had a long and distinguished service in higher technical education, science and research, public administration and finally the monarch’s as Marshal of the Realm (the head of the Royal Court), a position in which he was considered one of the King’s most important advisors. (more…)