The Hereditary Grand Duke and Princess Alexandra attend LieGames **

The Hereditary Grand Duke and Princess Alexandra are in Liechtenstein for the 14th Games of the Small States of Europe (LieGames).

Yesterday, Guillaume and Alexandra attended the sold-out circus themed opening. They appeared enthusiastic when Luxembourg's flag-bearers entered the field. Cyclist Bob Jungles noted that it was an honor to represent Luxembourg as flag-bearer.

The Hereditary Prince and Princess of Liechtenstein and The Prince of Monaco were also in attendance.

The athletic competitions begin today. The 158 person  delegation from Luxembourg arrived yesterday after a long bus journey. Guillaume and Alexandra will support Luxembourg's athletes in their competitions today and tomorrow.

Luxembourg is scheduled to host the 15th Games of the Small States of Europe in 2013 (LuxGames).

Tageblatt and Wort have photo galleries and articles covering the opening ceremony that contain additional photographs of Guillaume and Alexandra.

The Luxembourg team has facebook and twitter, where you can find other photograph, video and information.

The Cour Grand-Ducale's website now has several very nice pictures of the Prince and Princess!!

State visit to Norway - Day 1 ****

Today was the first day of the state visit of the Grand Ducal couple to Norway. Early in the morning the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess were send-off with military honours at the airport in Findel and then flew to Norway, where they were welcomed royal style by Crown Prince Haakon.

Afterwards the Grand Ducal couple and the Crown Prince made their way to the Palace Square in central Oslo, where the Grand Duke Henri and his fellow head of state King Harald V took the salute by the Norwegian military, followed by a wreath laying ceremony at Akershus Fortress.

Thereafter the couples parted ways. While the King and the Grand Duke, accompanied by various Luxembourgish politicians including the foreign minister Jean Asselborn, met with the Norwegian Prime Minister; Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Queen Sonja visited Seterhytten at the Open-Air Museum at Bygdøy and Oscarshall Summer Palace.

Finally, the day finished in style with a Gala banquet hosted by the King and the Queen and many members of the Norwegian royal family in attendance.

In difference to the closing procession of the Octave, there are loads of photos available of today's activities. Both Wort and Tageblatt are reporting about the visit and both offer lovely, constantly updated galleries including the farewell at the airport in Luxembourg. You can find additional photos at ANP Beeldbank (just type in "Oslo 30 May" and the goodies will show up), Getty Images, Belga, Belga, WireImages, and for pictures without watermarks have a look at Daylife. Other galleries can be found at siste.no and of course the Cour itself. And at the ever up-to-date RTL, you can see a few seconds of the visit in this video starting at about 0:18. RTL also offers video and sound of the Grand Duke's speech. Aftenposten has a video of the arrival to the gala banquet. Two other great videos can be found on youtube, just click here and here. A transcript of the speech of Grand Duke Henri is available on the official website.

Octave 2011 ***

The Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg closed today. The month long event closed with a solemn procession through the streets and several Masses. Thousands of people participated in and watched the procession. The political elite and 6 members of The Grand Ducal Family were prominent attendees.

Wort has a small gallery of the Pontifical Mass that was attended by Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa. RTL has a very large gallery containing over 1,000 images of the procession and the closing Mass. The RTL gallery includes many photos of Grand Duke Henri, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, The Hereditary Grand Duke, Princess Alexandra, Prince Louis and Princess Tessy. Manuel Dias has a large gallery containing many great pictures of the Grand Ducal Family. Manuel's photos really show how Princess Tessy totally rocked her look for the Octave. I.am.a.fan. RTL has a new gallery of pictures focusing on the balcony appearance.

RTL covered the cathedral with a live stream. Replay features some highlight footage of the procession and the Mass, beginning around 4:20.

The Grand Duchess looked beautiful, but seemed very solemn. Princesses Tessy and Alexandra looked very lovely. Princess Tessy seemed very poised. Prince Guillaume, as usual, looked perfectly princely (nice tie, Sir). I've never really been able to complain about Prince Louis or Grand Duke Henri. Both gentlemen are always perfectly groomed and attired for public engagements, today was no different.

The Grand Duchess' Brother Hospitalized *

The Cour Grand-Ducale has issued a press release stating that The Grand Duchess' older brother, Antonio Mestre, is in a coma in a Florida hospital. He was admitted to the hospital yesterday with cardiovascular problems. His condition is given as "alarming."

The Grand Duchess is scheduled to travel to Florida as soon as she can. Unfortunately, she cannot leave the day before a long scheduled state visit. It is estimated that The Grand Duchess will not participate in the final day of the state visit program in Norway. It is certainly a testament to her dedication to Luxembourg that she will continue to meet the demands of her position during this time.

Our sincerest thoughts and prayers are with The Grand Duchess and her family during this time.

Wort's article on the press release is a little confusing. It would be lovely if they would link the actual press release from the Cour.

Sources: Wort, RTL

Octave 2011

The annual close of the Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg began early this morning. The closing street procession began several hours later at 3pm. A full day of street fairs and religious activities are planned in cities and towns throughout Luxembourg.

RTL streamed the Mass live. The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess attended the Mass without any of their children. Unfortunately, this year RTL didn't stream the procession.

The Grand Ducal Couple, The Hereditary Grand Duke, Princess Alexandra, Prince Louis and a very lovely looking Princess Tessy participated in the closing procession and Mass.

I have yet to find any pictures. We'll make a new post with photos once they become available in a few hours.

14th Games of the Small States of Europe

The Principality of Liechtenstein is gearing up to host the 14th Games of the Small States of Europe. The games will open on Monday and close on Saturday. Around 750 athletes representing Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Iceland, Monaco, Malta, Cyprus, and Montenegro will compete at 10 venues spread across the principality.

More than 100 athletes from Luxembourg will compete in 7 disciplines. During the first 3 days of the 6 day event, Luxembourg's participants will enjoy the support of The Hereditary Grand Duke and Princess Alexandra.

Source: Tageblatt, Lie Games 2011

Thanks to Sydney for the information. 

Grand Duke visits sports laboratory

In advance of the state visit to Norway, the Grand Duke Henri has visited the Centre de Recherche Public de la Santé, a sports laboratory in the city of Luxembourg. The institute focuses on research in the fields of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of sports injuries, 'healthy aging' and the influence of sports activities on chronical diseases. The CRP-Santé is modelled on the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center. Therefore, a delegation of members of the research institution will accompany the Grand Ducal couple on their visit to Oslo.

Sources: Tageblatt

The Hereditary Grand Duke attends Princess Maxima's Birthday Concert

Yesterday evening, The Hereditary Grand Duke was in Amsterdam at the Royal Concert Gebouw to attend a gala concert given in honor of Princess Maxima's 40th birthday.

The 1,900 attendees included several hundred invited guests and paying members of the public. The conductor Mariss Jansons led the renowned orchestra through Rossini, Liszt and Von Weber.

Unfortunately, there are not many photos of Guillaume. Even real life princes are no match for the public's fascination with royal women. Luckily, Guillaume arrived behind Crown Princess Mary. If you are interested in seeing our dashing Hereditary Grand Duke, you will find him behind Mary and Frederick in most of the photos and directly behind Princess Maxima in the group photo. Guillaume is also photographed with his cousin Princess Maria Carolina de Bourbon de Parme.

You will find the photos at Isopix, Belga, Belga, Parool, Royalty, AT5, AT5, Royal Press Europe, and Maxima Fan. RTL has two videos of the concert including some of Princess Maxima's moving speech. Video 1, Video 2.

The Hereditary Grand Duke in Germany

A few days ago, on May 24th to be precise, the Hereditary Grand Duke visited the German town of Wiesbaden to educate himself even more about the business of Social Business. During the visit he also met with various town officials.

Coincidentally Wiesbaden isn't only a beautiful place (not only) to learn about Social Business activities, but also the capital of the former Dukedom of Nassau. To this day, the reigning Grand Duke of Luxembourg also bears the title of the Duke of Nassau. Guillaume bears the title Hereditary Prince of Nassau.

Wiesbaden is a leader in the developing field of social business. Guillaume was accompanied by a delegation from the Sustainable Development Unit of the University of Luxembourg. The visit was part of Luxembourg's ongoing commitment to studying and developing methods of social business that can be implemented in the Grand Duchy.

The Cour Grand Ducal has kindly published a few pictures of the event on their website. Three newspaper articles can be found in the local newspaper, here , here and here. You may also find an English language summary on myMosaik.

Guillaume and his father paid an official visit to Wiesbaden in 2006. Tom Wagner has a gallery of photos of the 2006 visit, featuring a very different looking Guillaume.

Sources: Cour Grand Ducale, Wiesbadener Kurier, Wiesbadener Tageblatt, myMosaik, Tom Wagner

Busy Weekend Ahead for the Grand Ducal Family

It is going to be a busy weekend for the Grand Ducal Family.

On Friday, The Hereditary Grand Duke will attend the 40th birthday celebrations for Princess Maxima of The Netherlands. More than 1,200 people will attend the birthday concert.

It is also a busy weekend in Luxembourg. The close of The Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg is this Sunday. The close of the Octave includes a Pontifical Mass and the miles long closing procession led by a statute of the Holy Virgin. This is always a major event on the Luxembourg calender. We are sure to see several members of The Grand Ducal Family in attendance. Naturally, I will be online during the Octave to provide links for photographs and RTL's live stream.

The 2 day state visit to Norway begins on Monday.

In June we will enjoy the biggest day on the annual Luxembourg calendar, National Day. The National Day celebrations will be closely followed by the major spectacle of the Princely Wedding in Monaco.