King Harald and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway made a joint appearance on the Royal Palace’s balcony to greet a military parade.
But it wasn’t just any military event; it was the annual performance of the 3rd Guard Company, which consists of about 130 military personnel, who are recruited at the beginning of autumn and train during autumn and winter, to then leave for concerts, exhibitions and other performance at home and abroad in spring and summer.
The King and the Crown Prince made an appearance on the balcony, from where they followed the performance by the 3rd company, and also greeted the crowd that had been gathering in the Royal Palace Square to watch the parade.
This event came just one day after King Harald returned from a three-day visit to Møre and Romsdal counties, in the west of the country, aboard the Royal Yacht, which served as their home base and was also the place where the King and Queen Sonja offered a reception on the last day of their tour.
Meanwhile, Crown Prince Haakon was opening the celebrations for the golden jubilee of Norway’s Arctic University, following in the footsteps on his grandfather, King Olav V, who inaugurated the institution in 1972. The university is also the entity that organised the arctic research expedition in which the Crown Prince took part earlier this year.
It was reassuring seeing King Harald out and about in these last few days of summer, as he has been battling some health issues for the better part of 2022. In March, he was diagnosed with COVID-19, and in August, he was admitted to the hospital for four days to fight an infection.
In 2021, he underwent surgery to repair a broken tendon in his knee and has been using crutches ever since; in 2020, he underwent heart surgery to replace one of the valves in the organ.
