Click here to see the image from the Cour Grand-Ducale

Grand Duke Henri received in audience Dr Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist, balloonist, lecturer, UN Goodwill Ambassador and the President of the charity ‘Wings of Hope’, which fights against childhood disease noma, in the Grand-Ducal Palace yesterday.

Originally from Lausanne in Switzerland, Dr. Piccard is visiting Luxembourg to attend the conference ‘Innovation for Sustainable Performance’.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Luxembourg Royals Audience, Grand Duke Henri

 HSH Prince Albert II paid a day-long visit to the Vatican City, and then to Rome, on October 16th. The Prince’s first stop was to visit His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

View the image at Getty Images

The morning meeting was held in the library of the Pope’s residence, where the two men spoke of the need for moral education, defending the right to life and the protection of  the environment. And, as was reported by the Vatican, “attention turned to themes of mutual interest including the importance of a solid cultural and moral formation of the young and the defense of life in all its phases.”

During his meeting, Prince Albert also met Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict’s secretary of state, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the secretary for relations with states. The Prince and the Pope also exchanged gifts. Upon the conclusion of the meeting, Prince Albert then travelled to Rome where he officially opened an exhibition on his mother, HSH the late Princess Grace. The Prince gave a speech at the opening, before a quick tour.

View the image at Hello!

The exhibition “The Grace Kelly Years: Princess of Monaco” is a travelling collection of Princess Grace’s personal belongings, including the stunning dress she wore to her 1956 wedding to HSH Prince Rainier III. There are also home videos filmed by Grace, as well as jewellery, several dresses and private family photographs. The exhibition will run in Rome until the end of February 2010 at the Palazzo Ruspoli.

Click here to view Prince Albert’s current events thread, and here for a thread regarding the Grace Kelly exhibition.

JessRulz Monaco Royals Audience, Grace Kelly, Italy, Pope Benedict XVI, Prince Albert II, Princess Grace, Vatican City

King Albert and Queen Paola were received in a private audience by Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday.

more pictures at Getty Images

As customary for a Catholic Queen, Paola wore a white veil (in contrast to other women, who have to wear black veil), while King Albert kneeled before the Pope.

A note published by the press office of the Holy See reported: “In the course of the cordial discussions issues concerning Africa, international politics, respect for human rights and the development of peoples were treated. Recalling the history of the Church in Belgium, they then reflected on the importance of the canonization of Blessed Damien Jozef De Veuster and his exemplarity for Belgium and the whole world”.

The meeting took place the day before the canonization ceremony of Father Damien. Father Damien, a Belgian missionary priest, left for Molokai to provide medical and spiritual care for the people affected by leprosy there. He was infected while taking care of his patients.  The King and Queen had already attended a Mass in honour of Father Damien in Tremelo – the place he was born as Jozef Damian de Veuster.

Marsel Belgian Royals Audience, King Albert II, Mass, Pope Benedict XVI, Queen Paola, Vatican City

 An audience with HM the Queen of Denmark. That is how US President Barack Obama and his wife, First Lady Michelle, ended their visit to Copenhagen yesterday, October 2nd.

Click to see the Berlingske gallery

The duo first met with Queen Margrethe II and HRH the Prince Consort at Christiansborg Palace, before the President was presented with a guard of honour by the Royal Danish Life Guard. President and First Lady Obama were then introduced to TRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary. The meeting took place in the Palace’s Banquet Hall, which is home to the ‘Dronningens Gobeliner’, or the Queen’s Tapestries.

The seventeen 300m2 tapestries, created by Bjørn Nørgaard and presented to the Queen as a gift for her 50th birthday, stunned the President, who was greatly impressed by the pieces. Queen Margrethe wasted little time, pointing out various features of the tapestries and explaining their meanings to her guests. The Obamas spent approximately fifteen minutes in the Banquet Hall with the royals, Michelle was seen chatting with the Prince Consort and Princess Mary. View a video of the Obamas’ arrival and inital meeting here.

From there, the President went on to an audience with Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. Here, there was a press conference where Obama thanked the royal family and the people of Denmark as a whole. “I would like to thank the Danish Royal Family for their extraordinary hospitality during our visit,” he said. The Prime Minister also thanked President Obama for coming to Copenhagen, saying everyone was delighted by their trip and hoped they would visit again soon, and wished the Chicago 2016 Summer Olympic Games bid well.

Click to see the image at Daylife

Luck was not with the Obamas and the Chicago delegation, which also included Oprah Winfrey, though as they were eliminated in the first round of the voting. Coming down to Madrid and Rio de Janiero, IOC President Jacques Rogge announced that the Brazillian capital would be the first South American city to host an Olympic Games, sending joy and jubilee throughout the Rio delegation and in the city itself.

The 121st IOC Congress continues until October 9th. View the Congress thread here.

JessRulz Danish Royals Audience, IOC, Margrethe II, Michelle Obama, President Obama, Prime Minister Rasmussen, Prince Frederik, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Princess Mary, Rio 2016

The Grand Duke this week has held three audiences, the first of which, on Tuesday, was with the Prime Minister of the Ukraine, Yulia Timochenko.

Click here to see the image from the Cour Grand-Ducale.

He then recieved on Friday the recipients of the Order of Adolphe, a chivalric order officially known as the Ordre du Mérite Civil et Militaire d’Adolphe de Nassau that was originally created for members of the Duchy of Nassau, and has now passed on to the Duke’s successor territory, Luxembourg. The award recognises those who have “performed meritorious actions or heroic deeds in the name of Luxembourg.”

The Grand Duke also recieved on Friday, along with the Grand Duchess, the tourist guides of the Luxembourg City Tourist Office who will be accompanying visitors around the Grand-Ducal Palace during its summer opening.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Luxembourg Royals Audience, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Grand Duke Henri, Orders, Ukraine

Grand Duke Henri has received in audience Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Jiri Dienstbier, Laszlo Kovacs and Colette Flesch, who were all involved in the roundtable event organised by the Institut Pierre Werner “The Exodus and Uprising of the People of 1989″, which is about how it was, 20 years ago, when the Iron Curtain fell.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Jiri Dienstbier, Laszlo Kovacs and Colette Flesch are each leading figures from Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary and discussed the events with the public. The day was concluded with a concert given by the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, which the Grand Duke also attended.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Luxembourg Royals Audience, Grand Duke Henri

Click here to see the image from the Cour Grand-Ducale

Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa attended the International Charlemagne Prize ceremony at the Hotel de Ville of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was presented to Dr. Andrea Riccardi, historian and founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio.

For more information, please see this thread.

The Grand Duke also received this week in audience  the Secretary-General of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, HE Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, during his official visit to Luxembourg.

For more information, please see this thread.

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alex001 Luxembourg Royals Audience, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Grand Duke Henri

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 Today Princess Letizia met with some of her former colleagues in the news industry who were promoting the humanitarian project “Drawn for Africa”.

Journalists Miguel Ángel Oliver and Marta Reyero created this project some months ago; whose main goal is the promotion of cultural, economic and social development in Africa. The project has since encouraged more Spanish journalists to join the project.

Among other initiatives, it promotes systems of housing and tourist routes in several African countries by means of microfunding, with women as principal recipients of the fund.

Princess Letizia also received at the Zarzuela representatives from the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association (Afinsyfacro in Spanish) of Móstoles, and representatives from the Dyslexia and Family Association (Disfam) from Palma.

Paty Spanish Royals Audience, Humanitarian Efforts, Princess Letizia, Princess of Asturias

Click on image to see photo at koninklijkhuis.nl

 Yesterday Queen Beatrix reived president Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at an audience in Huis ten Bosch palace, The Hague. The president visited The Hague as he attended the special Afghanistan summit in the World Forum. Other attendees were US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The latter stayed with the queen at Huis ten Bosch Palace.

Earlier that day the queen visited an elementary school in Rotterdam. The queen was accompanied by Sharon Dijksma, state secretary of Education. The group inspected the school and talked to teachers, parents and the director of the Bloemhof school. The school is working with the so-called ‘Wanitaconcept’ to help students that are behind. Education in arts and getting to know yourself are important parts in this concept.

Marengo Dutch Royals Afghanistan, Audience, Education, President Karzai, Queen Beatrix

 Today the Queen of Spain met with Mary Ellen Iskenderian, chairwoman of Women’s World Banking, and Jennifer Nkuene Riria, General Director of Kenya Women’s Finance Trust.

Both ladies are in Spain for the “La microfinanciación en África y Asia” (Micro Funding in Africa and Asia) international conference, hosted by the Casa Africa and Casa Asia. The conference will tackle the role of the enterprising women who have successfully directed institutions dedicated to microfunding in Asia and Africa.

Casa África and Casa Asia began a project about microfunding more than a year ago and started it with a series of conferences about the evolution of microcredit development and putting value on Asian and African women. The conference was presided by the Queen and inaugurated by Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Paty Spanish Royals Audience, Microcredit, Queen Sofia