Olympics Round-Up

Time just flies sometimes: hard to believe but the Olympic Games are almost over, so it's time for an event round-up of what the members of the Grand Ducal Family been up to during the last (almost) two weeks in London.

Of course there was the opening ceremony and the first day of competition, which were already covered in an earlier post. (In case you missed have a look here.) Though the family missed one and an almost member on the very first day, luckily they were soon joined by the missing ones: Prince Sébastien and Prince Guillaume's fiancée Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy.

During the first week of competition, the family attended various events in various combination to cheer on the nine Luxembourgish athletes: Jeff Henckels participated in the archery, Laurent Didier and Christine Majerus in the road cycling, Marie Muller came in 5th Women's -52 judo competition, Carole Calmes competed in shooting, Ni Xia Lian in the women's table tennis and tennis player Gilles Muller unfortunately lost relatively early in the competition, while swimmer Laurent Carnol was the first swimmer from the Grand Duchy to reach the semi-finals though Raphael Stacchiotti sadly missed it by a margin.

For pictures of the family at all kinds of events have a look at the following links.

Roland Miny Pressphoto
Wort #1 
Wort #2
Wort #3
L'essentiel
Tageblatt
Revue
RTL - Day 3
Pure People #1
Pure People #2
Cour Grand-Ducale

As its hardly missable in the pictures, they seemed to have an awesome lot of fun.

On Monday the 30th of July, Grand Duke Henri, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy, Prince Félix, Prince Louis, Princess Tessy, Princess Alexandra and Prince Sébastien were invited to a reception hosted by BGL BNP Paribas. BGL is a bank and the major sponsor of the Luxembourgish Olympic Team, pictures can be found over at Wort. I also spied Marc Cunningham, the husband of Grand Duke Henri's cousin Princess Charlotte, among the guests.

After the competition for the Luxembourgish team was over, Grand Duke Henri, Prince Félix, Prince Louis and Princess Tessy, as well as Princess Alexandra and Prince Sébastien visited the athletes in the Olympic village; HGD Guillaume and his fiancée joined the later on. A galleries of visuals of the visit is available at Wort and RTL.


While in London Prince Felix gave an interview to Tageblatt and the Grand Duke answered Wort's questions.
A video of the family watching the third day of the Olympics including an interview with the Grand Duke is available at RTL (starting at 3:44 and 8:46). You can also catch short glimpses of the family cheering in this video.

And by the way... Sometimes royals have just the same problems as us mere mortals.

Félix Does It Again

In case you are a regular follower of the adventures of the Grand Ducal family, you might remember that almost exactly a year ago, Prince Félix went parachute jumping. Last Sunday, Félix was a guest at the Air Championships held at the aerodrome in Noertrange, which marked the end of the MoselLuxBoogie 2012.
While there he awarded the awards and used the opportunity to jump off an airplane again. This time all on his own, seems like the tandem jump last year inspired him to get a license. Pictures are both available on the website of the cour and at MyWort.


Source: CGD

Olympic Games #1

The grand ducal family was out in (almost) full force to cheer on the Olympic atheletes in London today. Grand Duke Henri, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, Prince Felix, Princess Alexandra as well as London-based Prince Louis and Princess Tessy attended various sporting events.
Sadly, I have no clue how to post a link but you can simply venture over to Newscom, then copy and paste "Grand Duke Luxembourg London 2012 Olympic Games" into the search box and some 66 goodies should come up. Easier but much less pictures of the Grand Dukes cheering on the athletes are available at Wort.

Already yesterday, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess were invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace and at the opening ceremony the couple waved the Roude Léiw.

Welcoming the Athletes

Together with athletes from some other nations, the athletes from Luxembourg were officially welcomed in the Olympic village yesterday evening. A little parade was held, the mayor of the village Duncan Goodhew gave a short speech and the flags were raised. Present for the short ceremony were Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa.

Both Tageblatt and Wort have galleries of the event.


Source: Wort

Grand Ducal Family at the Olympic Games

Tomorrow the 2012 Summer Olympics will kick off with a grand opening ceremony in London and the Grand Duke, the Grand Duchess and other members of the grand ducal family will be on hand for the event to cheer on Luxembourgish athletes headed by the flag bearer judoka Marie Muller. Sadly, the cour hasn't specified who the "other members" are but here is hoping for a big turn-out just like at the Athens Olympics eight years ago when all the kids were around, four years ago in Beijing Princess Alexandra and Prince Sebastien accompanied their parents.

Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa will also take part in a reception at Buckingham Palace tomorrow prior to the opening ceremony. Family members will also most probably be present for events during the Olympics though nobody should hold their breathes for a Luxembourgish medal.


Source: Cour grand ducale

Another Economic Mission

A while ago, between July 9th and 15th to be exact, the Hereditary Grand Duke once again led an economic mission to the United States. This time Guillaume and his crew of usual suspects paid a visit the the West Coast, namely Sillicon Valley. McAfee`s Senior Director & Customer Security Strategist wrote a piece and posted a picture of the encounter. The cour also has a picture.


Source: Cour grand ducale

Olympic Countdown

With just days to go until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London, Queen Elizabeth II invited the members of the International Olympic Committee to a reception at Buckingham Palace. As you may (or may not) know, Luxembourg's very own Grand Duke is a member of the IOC and thus among the guests. A picture of Grand Duke Henri happily chatting with the Duke of Gloucester, the Queen's cousin, can be found here.


Source: Daylife

A Ball With Many Guests

Last month Prince Piotr Galitzine and his wife née Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, daughter of Archduke Rudolf of Austria and godmother of Luxembourg's very own Princess Alexandra, held a formal ball in honour of their daughter Princess Maria Galitzine. Reportedly there were more than 500 guests invited, among them quite a royal, grand ducal and princely crowd.

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and his fiancée Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy, who is good friends with Maria's older sister Princess Xenia, were among the guests, as were Prince Félix who brought along his girlfriend Claire Lademacher, Prince Louis and Princess Tessy, as well as Princess Alexandra.

Their Habsburg cousins Archduke Imre including fiancée Katie Walker, Archduke Christoph and fiancée Adélaïde Drapé-Frisch, Archduke Alexander and younger sister Archduchess Gabriella were also among the attendants and brought their parents Archduke Carl-Christian and Princess Marie-Astrid along.

From Liechtenstein there were Princess Maria-Anunciata, Princess Marie-Astrid and probably others I have missed as I don't have the official guestlist on hand. Which also means that (keeping in mind that there were 500 guests) it is quite probable that others from Liechtenstein, the Nassau cousins or the Lignes were also among the guests.

In case you were just swamped with names that doesn't mean much to you, have a look at our Who's Who page to see how they fit into the grand ducal family.


Sources: Paris Match Belgium, Other

Music and Fun

A week or so ago, Grand Duke Henri was present for the 60th edition of the Festival de Wiltz, a music and theatre open-air festival held every year. Starting out solely as a theatric event, the festival now includes concerts as well. Last week, the it was the turn of the Orchestre National de Belgique.

But the grand ducal family does not only visit the festival in their official capacity. A few years ago, one could see the grand ducal couple and three of their kids enjoying ABBAmania.

An extensive gallery of visuals can be found on the website of RTL.


Source: RTL

Imre and Katie in Brussels

Archduke Imre and his American fiancée Kathleen "Katie" Walker were in Brussels on Tuesday, where they attended the Ommegang Oppidi Bruxellensis historical parade.

Research tells me (and thus you) that an ommegang is a name for medieval pageants celebrated in Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern France. The one attended by Imre and Katie is the most famous one and commemorates the joyous entry of the holy roman emperor Charles V. into the city of Brussels almost 500 years ago.

The event was also attended by Imre's great aunt Queen Fabiola of Belgium. If you look closely, you can spy him and Katie (or parts of them) in pictures here and here. If you like to have it easier, you have a look at this video of Queen Fabiola arriving and greeting the engaged couple.

A special thanks to Iza for providing the news. I said it before and I'll say it again: You are awesome!


Source: Sudpresse, Wikipedia