Tillykke, Margrethe!

Today is Queen Margrethe II's 68th birthday. This means that there were Danish flags flying all over the city, even two on the front of every city bus! I took an early lunch to go and see her greet the masses from the balcony of Amalienborg palace at noon -- as you can see below, it was packed, but we still managed to get a good spot right under the balcony. In the picture above you can see (left to right): Prince Henrik, royal consort to Her Majesty; Prince Felix and Prince Nikolai; Queen Margrethe; her son Prince Joachim (Felix and Nikolai's dad); and his fiancé, Marie. On the far left you can also see the royal dog -- I don't know its name :) Unfortunately the crown prince and princess and their two babies weren't there -- I don't know why. Basically, the event begins with the changing of the guard, after which the queen and co come out and wave to the masses. Then they go away and everybody chants "Margrethe, Margrethe, kom nu frem -- ellers går vi aldrig hjem!" (Margrethe, Margrethe, come out now -- otherwise we'll never go home!). This makes everybody come back out a few more times. Everybody waves their Danish flags and there's lots of good cheer and patriotism. It's pretty cute. America should have more traditions like that.

Another thing that's making headlines now is that certain public services employees (nurses, midwives, home care workers, and some day care workers) are on strike, which is a big deal since there is nobody to take care of kids, old people, and sick people. So hopefully it won't go on too long! We'll see. Today was the first day of the strike, and I saw lots of people picketing on my way to work and to the palace. Not on my way home from work though -- guess even striking workers only work a 37-hour workweek here!