The Final Finish Line

Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed, it was pretty successful! Part one was partly accomplished while the second part was entirely successful. Today, The Grand Duke Henri was in Paris to congratulate Andy and Fränk Schleck for their second- and third-place finishes in this year's Tour de France. After 3430 kilometres the Schlecks from Mondorf-les-Bains made it safely to the French capital to become the first brothers to stand together on the podium of La Grande Boucle, in its 98th edition.

The always handy RTL has a few videos: in this one you can see, among other things, the victory ceremony; just forward to 24:53 to see the Grand Duke congratulating the cyclists, later in the video (starting at around 54:40) you can see Grand Duke Henri with the Schlecks and their family, especially lovely is the scene when Fränk's little daughter Leea is playing with the Grand Duke's tie. In this video, starting at about 05:40, you can see and hear an interview with him.

Wort has a gallery of pictures of the last day of the Tour de France including some of the Grand Duke, Roland Miny also has a large gallery of photos of the final stage.

Sources: Reuters, Wort

A Royal Wedding

Yesterday, Prince Rashid bin El Hassan, the cousin of King Abdullah II of Jordan, got married to Zeina Shaban, now Princess Zeina. The wedding took place at the Basman Palace in the Jordanian capital Amman. Here you can find a few pictures of the ceremony.

As you can see on the picture, a few Luxembourgish Royals were among the invitees. Princess Marie-Astrid and her husband Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria, Princess Margaretha and her husband Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein, Prince Guillaume and his wife Princess Sibilla, Prince Jean and his wife Diane de Guerre, as well as Prince Louis, his better half Princess Tessy and Prince Felix were in attendance. The Grand Ducal Family and the groom's family share a long lasting friendship.

Source: Ammonnews.net (English version), Petra

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

It's looking good for the cycling mad - just have a look at the RTL website that looks very yellow now or read the letter Jean-Claude Juncker has sent the Schlecks - Grand Duchy. Today was the third last stage of this year's Tour de France and Andy Schleck has taken the lead and the maillot jaune ahead of his older brother Fränk. This means a Luxembourgish double lead going into tomorrow's final time trial that will determine the final rankings of the race, since it is a tradition that no rider attacks the leader and the overall rankings during the final stage leading to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

So keep your fingers crossed for Andy and Fränk that they will be able to be on the podium on Sunday and that Andy will become the first Luxembourgish winner of le Tour since Charly Gaul in 1958. And while you are at it, you can also keep your fingers crossed for an appearance of The Grand Duke himself, or maybe even more family members. Grand Duke Henri has been in Paris for the last stage of the Tour de France for the last two years and in 2008 Prince Felix was in the French capital to have a beer with Luxembourg's - and maybe the World's - best cyclists.

Allez Fränk an Andy!

Sources: Le Tour de France

Handsome Young European Prince Visits California. No, Not That One.

I admit it, I stole that headline from MercuryNews.com but somehow I don't understand it... When I think of "Handsome European Princes," our dear Guillaume is one of the first gentlemen that come into my mind and certainly not "That One," or at least what I think that they think the "one" would be ;)

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, the world's only Hereditary Grand Duke visited San Francisco as part of an Economic Mission from the world's only Grand Duchy led by Jeannot Krecké.

During their stay in California, they visited the Plug and Play Tech Center, eBay, and met with the mayor of San Francisco Edwin Lee to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Luxembourgish consulate in San Francisco. Besides their embassy in Washington D.C., the Grand Duchy has two consulates in the United States; one in San Francisco and the other one in New York.

During their meeting, Edwin Lee presented Guillaume a proclamation making July 13th the "Consulate General of Luxembourg Day in San Francisco." The Hereditary Grand Duke was also endowed with a portfolio of pre-1906 earthquake images of San Francisco. In turn he gave Edwin Lee a copper etching print by Philippe Emmanuel Lamesch, a Luxembourgish born artist now living in the Bay Area.

Sources: Cour Grand-Ducale, gouvernement.lu, mymosaik.lu, MercuryNews.com, Philippe Lamesch

The Last Goodbye

Last Saturday, Otto von Habsburg was laid to rest at the Imperial Crypt in Vienna after a grand requiem at the St. Stephen's Cathedral. The church service was attended by most of the Habsburg family and many foreign royalty and nobility.

As expected The Grand Duke was in Vienna to pay his respect to the decedent. Princess Marie-Astrid, her husband Archduke Carl-Christian and their three sons Archduke Imre, Archduke Alexander and Archduke Christoph with his fiancée Adélaïde at his side also attended the funeral.

Photos of the funeral are available at PPE Agency, Belga, Getty Images, Royal Press Europe, Daylife, Profimedia, and all over the internet. If you have a - sometimes close - look at them, you can spot Grand Duke Henri and his sister Marie-Astrid and her family a couple of times.

There are also some videos of the funeral available online in which you can spot Grand Duke Henri, Princess Marie-Astrid and Archduke Carl-Christian as well as their children a couple of times. Most of the videos can be found over at youtube, for example in these six (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
You can re-watch the whole coverage by Austrian TV station ORF in two parts, here and here.

Thanks to all my fellow Luxaholics who helped to assemble the numerous links!

Grand Duke Jean Visits Driver's Training Center

Grand Duke Jean has visited the Driver's Safety Training Center in Colmar-Berg today. About 15 years ago the then reigning Grand Duke opened the Centre de Formation Pour Conducteurs in his then hometown. Together with minister Claude Wiseler, Grand Duke Jean visited the new and enlarged training rooms as well as an exhibit called "Hall of Consequences" that shows cars that have been involved in accidents.

In the last 15 years about 120.000 drivers have taken courses at the Training Center. It is mandatory for everyone who gets a driver's licence in the Grand Duchy to undergo a course of Driver's Safety Training within two years after their driving test. Last year 32 people died during or in the aftermath of a car accident in Luxembourg. This number is steadily decreasing; in 1970 more than 130 persons died.

mywort.lu as well as Wort itself have a few more pictures of the visit.

Sources: Wort, mywort.lu

Grand Duke to Attend Funeral

The Grand Duke Henri will attend the requiem for Archduke Otto of Austria and his wife Archduchess Regina, also known as Otto and Regina von Habsburg, in Vienna next Saturday. The couple will be laid to rest at the Imperial Crypt in Vienna en famille, prior a requiem will be held at the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Archduke Otto died on July 4th at the age of 98, while Archduchess Regina, a born Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, died about a year ago.

Archduke Otto's mother Empress Zita was a born Princess of Bourbon-Parma and the sister of Prince Félix, the husband of Grand Duchess Charlotte. Therefore, Archduke Otto is the cousin of Grand Duke Jean. I think, that we can also expect some other family members to be in Vienna on Saturday; among them Princess Marie-Astrid and Archduke Carl-Christian, who is the nephew of the deceased.

I extend my deepest condolences to the family of Archduke Otto. He was a truly remarkable man who lived through almost 100 years of European history and was a part of it, starting with being the Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia to being one of the organisers of the Pan-European Picnic and a member of the European Parliament. He certainly had a long and fulfilled life. May he rest in peace.

Source: Kathnews

The Neverending Story...

... of the changes to the line of succession. As Trond Norén Isaksen is reporting on his very knowledgable blog, Princess Alexandra actually is in line to the throne ahead of her younger brother Prince Sébastien, which would be accordingly to the wording of the decree that says that the change of order starts with "our [the current Grand Duke's] descendants."

In difference the Cour Grand-Ducale insisted earlier, and still does, that the change of the succession line is not retroactive, also they confirmed that Princess Alexandra now is in line between Prince Félix and Prince Sébastien.

Maybe it would just the the easiest thing to publish the actual line of succession starting with the Hereditary Grand Duke followed by everyone else that is in line to the throne as of now ...

Sources: Trond Norén Isaksen, Legilux

Honouring the Best

Yesterday, The Grand Duke received Luxembourg's best students at the Palais Grand-Ducale. Like every year, the very best graduates of the high school and the technical high school visited the Palace together with the Minister of Education Mady Delvaux-Stehres.

Source: Cour Grand-Ducale

Mark your calendars: HGD in California

An Economic Mission, led by Luxembourg's Minister for Economy and Foreign Trade Jeannot Krecké, to Canada and the United States of America has started on Monday last week, and the Hereditary Grand Duke will join the mission on its last stop in San Francisco during the upcoming week. The mission will end on July, 13th.
During their stay in San Francisco, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Minister Krecké will, among other things, visit the business accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center, that helps Luxembourgish technology businesses and innovatives to break into the U.S. market

Sources: MyMosaik.lu, RTL, gouvernement.lu