King Harald V and Queen Sonja are back on board their royal yacht Norge, but in Stockholm, not Oslo. The yacht was ceremoniously launched for the summer season last week, earlier than normal, and then sailed to the Swedish capital.
There was a reason for the early voyage: The 80th birthday celebrations of Sweden’s own king, Carl XVI Gustaf, on April 30th. The yacht will serve once again as comfortable accommodation for the Norwegian royals, who are invited to the Swedish king’s birthday festivities on Thursday.
They didn’t sail from Oslo to Stockholm on the yacht themselves, though. State broadcaster NRK reported that they instead traveled to Stockholm on Wednesday and then went on board their yacht, which is moored at Skeppsbron in the heart of town and near the Swedish royal palace.
Crown Prince Haakon will also attend the Swedish king’s birthday party on Thursday, but first must lead the weekly Council of State with the government at the palace in Oslo in the king’s absence. It’s being held late Thursday morning this week, instead of on Friday as normal, because that’s the May 1st Labour Day holiday this year.
The crown prince will travel to Stockholm after the Council of State, to be there in time for the gala birthday banquet. He’ll be traveling alone, though. His wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, won’t be attending because of what Norwegian palace staff call her “health situation.” She suffers from lung fibrose and has recently appeared in public with a mobile oxygen apparatus.
The crown princess has also kept a much lower profile in recent months after news broke of her three-year relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and while her son Marius Borg Høiby was in court on charges of rape, violence, vandalism and drug dealing.
The celebrations of King Carl Gustaf’s 80th birthday will last all day on Thursday, from a church service in the morning to the gala dinner in the evening. He’s been Sweden’s king for nearly 53 years, and recently told Swedish television SVT that he has no plans to abdicate. Nor does Norway’s King Harald, who turned 89 in February.
King Harald’s yacht, meanwhile, will also be put into use later in May, when he and Queen Sonja will embark on another royal tour to some of the few municipalities in western Norway that they haven’t officially visited. The yacht serves as both their mode of transport and their “home away from home” during both official visits and holidays.
It was built in England in 1937 and given as a gift from the Norwegian people to Harald’s grandfather, King Haakon VII. The ceremonial annual inspection and embarkation rituals held last week date back to 1948.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
