Keld Navntoft, Kongehuset ©
After surgery on her back and a recovery period “longer than expected,” Queen Margrethe has slowly resumed her official engagements.
And one of the traditions that she kept going was the annual end-of-summer trip aboard the Royal Ship Dannebrog. Between 29th August and 1st September, Her Majesty visited three municipalities: Vordingborg, Randers and Fredericia.
The Queen arrived in Vordingborg on Tuesday, 29th August, and, after the traditional welcome from local authorities, she rode around the town in a carriage before she was given a tour of an exhibition about the city’s project to spread biodiversity and visited the museum created by the Association of Traditional Crafts.
After lunch at the Fredreksminde Hotel, which shed André Skjødt created with local produce, Queen Margrethe dedicated her afternoon to visiting various infrastructure projects before hosting a reception aboard the Dannebrog in the evening.
After taking a day off on the 30th, the Dannebrog was anchored in Randers Harbour, where the Queen was welcomed by local authorities and a band playing “King Christian.”
The Queen then spent the morning visiting the local community’s favourite spots to gather, specifically focusing on Rhanders Handsker. This company has existed since the 13th century but was officially registered in 1811.
After lunch in the town’s oldest hotel, Queen Margrethe visited Tradium Business School, which focuses on passing down knowledge on traditional crafts, before being shown the repurposing project for Blue Bridge, which went from being used for the railway to being dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles. She then visited a park, viewing companies operating in various sectors, including sports, crafts, and urban development. The day ended with the traditional reception aboard the Dannebrog for local community members.
On the last day, Friday 1st September, the Royal Ship travelled to the municipality of Fredericia, where, after the traditional welcome and carriage ride, the Queen visited a school and was introduced to a support group for children who experience language disabilities, all of whom are being helped with public speaking classes.
Then, Her Majesty was guided through a tour of the local green hydrogen production plant by CEO Jacob Krogsgaard, which incidentally is also Europe’s largest facility. Afterwards, she stopped at Fredericia Musical Theatre, where she watched a short performance before her last stop: Canal City, which King Frederik III designated as the centre of an ideal royal city. She viewed art projects both from those times as well as ones that are as recent as 2020.
The last stop for this leg of the tour was the usual reception aboard the Dannebrog for the local community. However, the Royal Court denied the public one last glimpse of the four-day visit by collaging a series of pictures of the many bouquets the Queen received during her journey displayed all around the Dannebrog.
After a few days of rest, Queen Margrethe is supposed to end the sailing season of the Dannebrog with a visit to the Municipality of Allerød on 12th September.
Summer cruises aboard the Dannebrog are a tradition that dates back to King Christian X, who created the trips for the first time to create connections with all communities around Denmark.
The tradition has been kept by both King Frederik IX and now Queen Margrethe.