Danish Royal Watchers: DRWs review: the Danish royal family 2006

This is the first of our posts of the year-in-review-in-pictures. The Danish Royal Family were busy with a mixture of official events, private holidays (which are somehow still 'public') and state visits (to Greece and one to Denmark from Bulgaria). The official events also included the Queen and Prince Henrik's summer cruise of Denmark, although it was a little marred by some health problems. One of those was fixed by Queen Margrethe's knee replacement surgery. A major event was the re-burial of Empress Dagmar which spanned extensive ceremonial observance from Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark, then across the Baltic to Russia where Frederik and Mary represented the Danish royal family in the various ceremonies in St Petersberg.

Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik together on the summer cruise, WWII memorial in Bornholm, in Athens for Queen Anne-Marie's 60th, at Cayx in France where they gave their annual press conference and in parliament for the official opening.

Queen Margrethe on the job in Denmark, Florence, Rome, Sweden and on crutches! She also had a portrait painted of her.

Prince Henrik was also busy with lots of events with his usual good humour and whimsy:

Princess Benedikte and her family have a new situation with the open declaration of the seriousness of the relationship between heir Prince Gustav and Carina Axelsson, Alexandra was involved in family get-togethers and Nathalie was busy with horse competitions and has revealed she has a serious boyfriend, although she has not yet revealed who.....

The Greek side of the family were very busy during the summer with a celebration in Greece of Queen Anne-Marie's 60th birthday and also Theodora's graduation in the US. Princess Alexia recovered from pneumonia. King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie went to St Petersberg for the re-burial of Empress Dagmar.

The Royal Yacht Dannebrog once again did good service on the state visit to Greece by the Queen and Prince Henrik. It was historic because it was the first Danish royal visit since the Greek royal family had been deposed. In Denmark, the Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov and his wife made a state visit.

Empress Dagmar, the daughter of Denmark and wife of a tsar was re-buried in St Petersberg after nearly 80 years in Roskilde Cathedral. It was Dagmar's dying wish to lay next to her husband Tsar Alexander III in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Russian imperial burial place in St Petersberg. The negotiation of the re-burial was many years in the making between Denmark and Russia.