A few translated snippets from
this article on VG.no.
His face lights up even more when we ask if it is okay to ask a few questions about his grandchildren. "It's always nice to talk about them."
"Do tell!"
"It is much fun with grandchildren. Now there is one more on the way, and that is very nice," King Harald says and smiles.
"How is the King as a grandfather?"
"I never thought I'd be as silly as other grandparents, but I have," he states and laughs about himself.
"What does the King do with the grandchildren?"
"They're still pretty young, but I do what other grandparents do. They come visit us, and we visit them."
"And then it is down on the knees to play?"
"Almost like that," the King laughs, and tells us that the family and the grandchildren meant a lot to him when he was ill.
"In those situations you notice how much family matters, certainly," the monarch continues thoughtfully.
---
Before Easter the King's doctor, Halfdan Ihlen ordered the King and Queen to step down a bit and take it easier in the future. But steering a king isn't always easy.
"We have to see what we do. If we take it easier, there are more duties for the Crown Prince Couple. But we (The King and Queen) automatically get a bit older, so it might come naturally," says the King.
Before he, in the next sentence, clarifies that being a part-time king is out of the question.
"It won't work, we don't have a tradition like that in Norway."
"Does the King wish that we had such a tradition?"
"No, not really. I find it okay the way we do it."
"How about Queen Sonja?"
"She has more energy than ever," says the King.
He has over the past years almost created a "tradition" of being away sailing on his wife's birthday.
Also this year. When the Queen invites to her 68th birthday celebration on the summer house on Mågerø tomorrow, the King focusses on sailing around Gotland as fast as possible.
"But I've got something set up. But she doesn't know about it, yet," grins king Harald.
-the loclas are very proud that the King chooses to come fishing here every year and says thet they belive he does so because they are left alone and noon makes a big deal out of it (except the local paper it seems
