I have never been particularly enthralled by royalty (though I did have the requisite Prince Will crush as a teenager), but I’ll admit that I find the Danish royal family appealing, as monarchs go. Denmark has the oldest continuous monarchy in Europe, and the fourth oldest in the world, dating back more than 1,000 years to the time of the distinctively named Harald Bluetooth. The current Queen Margrethe II is only the second female monarch of Denmark, the first being Margrete I who ruled from 1375-1412. The Kingdom of Denmark – its quaint official title – is a constitutional monarchy, which of course means that the royals are primarily ceremonial figures. But I have to say that the Queen and her family bear their ceremonial duties well. Sure, they live in palaces and are absurdly wealthy. But they’re also known for doing very “ordinary people” things and mingling with their subjects everywhere from the city’s bike paths to Lego expos.

Thus, perhaps we shouldn’t have been shocked when the kids and I happened to have an up-close-and-personal encounter with the Queen just last week, while we were visiting the National Museum. Continue reading →