Frederik & Mary @ Belgium's Prince Philippe's 50th

Over the weekend (23-24 April, 2010) Prince Philippe of Belgium (Duke of Brabant) and his wife Princess Mathilde (godmother to Isabella) have been celebrating his 50th birthday with numerous royal guests including Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and her fiancé Daniel Westling, the Oranges, Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, the Prince and Princess of Asturias of Spain, Felipe and Letizia, Infanta Cristina, the Grand Ducal couple of Luxembourg, Henri and Maria Teresa and many other royals from the Netherlands, Portugal, Europe generally and some Jordanian royals (not sure from news yet available). No photos yet. I have taken some pretty poor quality screencaps from the news clip from HLN.be - best I can give you at the moment. The royals and guests boarded a bus to transport them to an evening gala in the Royal Greenhouse at Laeken Castle on Friday, with a visit to the Magritte Museum during the day. Princess Máxima went shopping at Natan. On Saturday there was a brunch at the Plaza Hotel in Brussels.



Screencaps © HLN.de

HLN.de - clip (01:28)

Nieuwsblad.be 'Prins Filip viert verjaardag met collega-prinsen'

More photos when/if they become available and lots still to catch up on for the Queen's 70th (and then some!)

Frederik's 40th party at the Orangery

The final celebration of Crown Prince Frederik's 40th took place on Saturday night and well into Sunday. It was Crown Princess Mary who organised the party for 140 guests in the Orangery at Fredensborg Palace. The guests were entertained by jazz music during the evening and Frederik preferred that there were no speeches. But a later report is that there were speeches in Danish anyway. But there were lots of entertainments in the form of songs from friends and also from Mary. One of them was written by Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen, and was sung with great enthusiasm by five friends and performed in the style of a boy band. Frederik joined in on the harmonica. Late in the evening the party moved from the Orangery to the garden behind Chancellery House in a marquee and with a band. Drinks were served with ice cubes of Greenlandic inland ice, which the Royal House had bought in Copenhagen earlier in the week at the Greenlandic specialist store Butik Kamik. At 5:00am on Sunday morning the last guests slipped away from the party. According to this article, Mary wrote and sang a song for her husband at the party with the help of a well-known Danish composer and friend of the DRF, Bent Fabricius-Bjerre (see report below).

There is media speculation that the attendance of Daniel Westling with Crown Princess Victoria is a signal that another royal wedding is imminent. Daniel and Victoria have been to a number of private royal events together, including the 60th birthday of King Carl Gustav (Sweden).

According to Amber Petty, who works on a breakfast radio show in Adelaide, she gave Frederik some South Austalian wines as a gift the night before the party. The dress she wore was by a local designer. It is a "cherry-red georgette, strapless cocktail length dress with a beaded bodice and soft waterfall cut skirt". Amber is staying at Chancellory House with the Crown Prince Family and will remain holidaying for another two and a half weeks.

Mary and Frederik, John and Susan Donaldson, Princess Alexandra S-W-B and Count Jefferson, Carina Axelsson and Prince Gustav, Tatiana Blatnik and Prince Nikolaos, Mette-Marit and Haakon, Daniel Westling and Victoria, Amber Petty, the Orangery on Saturday evening:




Preben Kristensen and Søren Hedegaard, Søren Hedegaard, Anja Camilla Aladji and partner, Hella Joof and Ellen Hillingsø, Peter Warnøe and Julie Tholstrup, Rikke Juul and Julie Mølsgaard, Jean and Ditlev Ahlefeldt-Laurvig, Helle Reedtz-Thott and Otto Reedtz-Thott, Rose Gad Foss and Holger Foss, Tanja Kjærsgaard Doky and Chris Minh Doky, Caroline and Peter Heering:




MSN Starlounge 'Alt om fødselsdagen: Jarl og Mary sang for Frederik' - Everything about the birthday: Jarl and Mary sang for Frederik
Crown Princess Mary secretly prepared her own completely personal present for Crown Prince Frederik - a song! According to MSN Starlounge's information she had allied herself with Bent Fabricius-Bjerre and written a song for her man.
During the evening she sang it for him to one of Bent's old tunes.
Several of the visitors told MSN Starlounge that it was the evening's absolute climax, and that Frederik - that many other visitors - shed a tear hearing Mary's song.
"It was so romantic," a visitor said.
Frederik's 40th birthday was full of experiences.
After a beautiful menu in the Orangery the visitors moved late in the evening to Kancellihuset...
Here entertainment began with Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen, who also sang for Frederik.
Then Anne Linnet sang some classics...
Frederik's good friend Lars H.U.G. played some songs...
About midnight Alex Nyborg Madsen's band Led Zeppelin Jam got going.
Later a DJ took over and played all Frederik's favourite songs including from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N' Roses.
"It was incredibly cosy, and the guests looked as if they realy had fun," Alex said when he left Fredensborg Slot...The last guest left Kancellihuset at 5am.

Billed Bladet 'Mary strålede til Frederiks fest' - Mary shone at Frederik's Party
¡Hola!

Billed Bladet photo gallery
B.T. photo gallery
Søren Steffen

Added: Her&Νu video clip (reporter Karen Balselv and camera Kasper Wenstrup)

(thanks gudinde, sissi and jema!)

King Harald's 70th: more of the celebrations

Some future kings and queens of Europe: Philippe and Mathilde (Belgium), Victoria (Sweden), Haakon and Mette-Marit (Norway), Frederik and Mary (Denmark), Willem-Alexander and Maxima (Netherlands). From Norway's official website

After dinner there was an outdoor concert and fireworks outside the Royal Palace in Olso. The event was broadcast on Norwegian television but quite a few members of the public braved the cold to join the celebration.



Baby bump watch?


Some others of the Danish contingent: Count Axel and Countess Jutta of Rosenborg and Count Preben Ahlefeldt-Laurvig

Read the biography of King Harold - it is quite a story.
Harald V of Norway (the Wikipedia version)


Aftenposten - Gifts for the King
Aftenposten photo gallery of the King's gifts - includes all sorts of presents from board games to a fishing rod complete with some beautiful lures, some chairs from Queen Sonia, a leather desk set from Märtha Louise and Ari Behn, wine, crystal, boxing gloves signed by Stælken Gundersen....
Aftenposten article - 'Pels gjorde susen' on the fashion choices at the museum outing (in Norwegian but has some pics)
Aftenposten TV - video clip (1:11) of the royal visit to the Norwegian folk culture museum at Bygdøy.
Side 2 video clip (2:05) at Bygdøy Museum
Aftenposten picture gallery at Bygdøy Museum
Side 2 video clip (1:06)- Queen Sonia busy taking snaps of her grandaughter Maud Angelica with her mobile
VG Nett photo gallery

Aftenposten photo gallery of the gala ball
Hola.com - 26 photo gallery of Skaugum - the house of the Crown Prince Family. King Harald and Queen Sonia lived here when they were Crown Prince and Crown Princess and Märtha Louise and Haakon spent their early childhood in the house.
TV2.dk - Kongelig invasion i Norge (Danish - Royal invasion in Norway)
TV2 photo gallery
Madeleine Glinforf's photo gallery (great job Madeleine!)

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Mary goes fur style, Fred goes for red

Matthew Benns
February 25, 2007

WRAPPED in a fur coat and on the arm of her husband, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark arrived in Norway for a royal birthday bash this weekend.
Crown Prince Frederik took great care of his six-months pregnant wife in the slippery and snowy conditions at Oslo airport on Friday.
The Danish royal couple is in Norway to attend the 70th birthday celebrations of King Harald over the weekend. And it is certain that Princess Mary will not be overindulging at the buffet table during the royal parties.
Last week she spoke at the launch of the European Charter on Counteracting Obesity, in Copenhagen.
She said part of her role as patron of the World Health Organisation regional office for Europe, was "to generate greater public awareness about how important physical activity and a balanced diet are to our health and wellbeing, and how vital these two factors are in tackling obesity."
Certainly the princess and her husband looked the picture of health at the weekend. However, the prince's choice of red pants for the day may mean she has work to do in the more superficial areas of her husband's appearance.Source: The Sun-Herald

ADDED:
VG NettTV (1:55) - the arrivals at the gala ball

VG NettTV (1:00) - a little of the dancing at the ball

Side 2 video clip (2:05) at the museum, where we can see Alexandra SWB's husband who made it from paris where he started a new job as head of a Swiss bank in Paris not long before Christmas

siste.no photo gallery of the carriage ride. Brrrrrr!
siste.no photo series page you can click on the magnifying icon to increase size

YouTube's on King Harald's birthday celebrations (thanks for uploading MihoshiMarie!)

There have been no photos released of the private dinner on Friday night at Crown Prince Haakon's and Crown Princess Mette-Marit's home, Skaugum Estate. Should any surface we will post later.




Added: