COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Europe’s longest reigning monarch Queen Margrethe rode through Denmark’s capital Thursday in a gilded, horse-drawn coach as she concluded her final public New Year’s before her abdication later this month.
Thousands, many cheering and waving flags, braved the freezing temperatures, strong winds, snow and sleet to cheer the popular queen along the route in what is to be her last public appearance as monarch. She will step down on Jan. 14 after 52 years on the throne.
The 83-year-old monarch will hand the throne to her oldest son, Crown Prince Frederik in the first such resignation in Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy in nearly 900 years.
Margrethe rode in the so-called Gold Coach — pulled by six white horses — that is used when the monarch rides from the royal residence at the Amalienborg Palace to the Christiansborg Palace during the traditional New Year’s fete with officers from the Armed Forces but also former Danish prime ministers Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, among others.
The monarch, who uses a walking stick, wore a fur coat and white gloves in the closed 19th-century coach covered in 24-karat gold leaf and topped with four gilded crowns on the roof. It was escorted by members of the Hussar Regiment in blue uniforms with red jackets.