Me? I’m a Royals fan. Sure. First Major League Baseball game I ever attended was watching the Kansas City Royals at Royals Stadium with cousins in the 1980’s. I was born in Kansas City. Does it get any more royal than that? It was the 80’s – George Brett was king – how could you not love them?

Oh – you mean ROYALTY. Like Queens and Kings and princes and princesses and such? Hunh. Yeah, I’ve heard of them. I will admit that I WAS devastated when I heard of Lady Di passing away. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I had just gotten married and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. I still have the newspaper. It was devastating. (isk – that’s Danish for ish) Since then (1997) I have paid little attention. It’s not exactly pertinent to a middle class domestic engineer with three children in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon.

BUT – I don’t live in Portland, Oregon anymore. I live in Copenhagen, Denmark now. The land of Hans Christian Andersen, Swan Lake in my backyard (literally there are lots and lots of swans on the lakes only a block from my home here), Tivoli and yes… ROYALS. And I don’t think they play baseball. Maybe they do? I’m guessing no. So not knowing a TON about the current Danish Royal Family, I will admit that I am impressed with the amount of castles or “slots” around here that are still active. Like Royal people still live there and are active there, as evidenced by the very official guard type people in fancy hats that stand watch at their fronts. They might look like they are 18, but they are capital O-fficial. And they have guns. As an American where guns are such a hotbed issue ALL THE TIME, this makes me uncomfortable, but that is another debate. Today we saw the Queen. The Queen of Denmark. And she was lovely and waved – not the elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist I was expecting… but a lovely sweet demure wave.

I have to thank Your Danish Life, The Expat Magazine for highlighting the event on my Copenhagen Expats Facebook page. I pulled my 8-year old daughter out of school (she missed music and Danish class ironically) for an adjunct education in Danish culture full of music and fancy costumes and impressive heel-clicking. It was awesome. Why? I don’t know exactly, besides a “when in Copenhagen?” kind of answer. A Danish journalist stopped the wee lass and I at the Amalienborg after the show and asked us precisely that. You can read our response here. I can only relate the level of pomp and circumstance to an American Veteran’s Day parade or funereal procession of U.S. military precision. Having multiple family members (including my late dad who we called Colonel) in the U.S. Army and other branches, it is what I know and am familiar with. Today was similar, but different. Like almost everything here of course.  

I would say though, that today was a home run with the wee lass. The home team performed well, pitched a perfect game and we loved the song for the 7^th inning stretch. Translation – a band atop fancy horses playing famous tunes while clopping along cobblestone streets leading a gold coach straight out of Cinderella holding the QUEEN. The REAL QUEEN. Of a COUNTRY. Wauw. (wow.) Just Wauw.