The Royal couple have travelled to the mountains
Dressed in winter clothes, King Harald and Queen Sonja went on Easter holiday. Traditionally, they will spend the holiday season at their cottage in Jotunheimen.
The so-called Prinsehytta (Prince Cabin) in Sikkilsdalen has long been the Royal Couple’s favourite destination at Easter, and they usually travel by train from Oslo to Vinstra, onwards by car and snowmobile, to the cottage.
The train left Oslo Central Station at 14.12 Friday afternoon.
“Sikkilsdalen is very important to us. We retreat there,” the King said during a state visit in Chile, end of last month.
The cabin compound consist of several buildings in timber, in two sections.
The Royal family’s own train carriage
When the Royal Couple goes to the cabin, they are transported in the venerable king’s carriage, which is owned by NSB. As a result of the competitive launch of the railway, and the shift to Vy, it is uncertain what will happen to it in the future. Currently, it has not been repainted in the new “Vy” colours.
“It has not been decided what to do with the royal carriage colourwise yet,” says press manager Åge-Christoffer Lundeby in NSB to NTB.
An even greater uncertainty than name and logo change is what happens to the carriage when the operation of train lines is privatized. The King’s carriage is one of a very few carriages NSB still owns after the government split up the rail sector into several companies.
“We are in a dialogue about what happens to the royal carriage in a competitive day and age. It may not be that it should be restricted to tracks that NSB operates,” says Lundeby.
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The Crown Prince from Samoa to the Easter Mountains
Although the royal couple mostly prefer their cottage at Easter, they have been traveling abroad for a few years. The most exotic Easter trip was perhaps the trip to Easter Island in 2014.
This year, Crown Prince Haakon will be travelling at Easter with a round trip on some of the Pacific islands, namely Tonga, Fiji and Samoa in the South Pacific, along with Development Minister Dag-Inge Ulstein (KrF), in order to place the ocean and climate on the agenda.
When he was younger, the Crown Prince was a permanent participant in the Easter processions at the Church in Sikkilsdalen, but in recent years he and the rest of the Crown Prince family have often been at their own cottage at Easter. This also applies this year.
“It will be at the cottage,” says Crown Prince Haakon to NTB on questions about where Easter should be spent.
The cottage is located in the Nore and Uvdal municipality in Buskerud, at the edge of Hardangervidda.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
