We went to see the changing of the guard - with my mother and Bodil and Kristian, who didn't come when we experienced it in Gråsten.
We started by the Guards House, where the guards stay, while they babysit the royalty. We were there a smidge before 11.30, and there they were - allready preparing. We settled in and spotted Andreas right away - he gave us a wave.
So we watched as they got ammo for their guns, and as they put on white gloves ... and golly, we saw a guy combing Andreas' bear...
I wonder if they use hair products for them bears??
I was positioned to take pictures, and the rest of the family waited eagerly for them to get ready.
Finally they were done preparing, and marched along with pipe and drum - right past me. I managed to get out of their way, so I didn't get marched over..
We followed them to Marselisborg. And we came close enough to see some, even though there were a lot of people. Notice in this picture, the unusually handsome young guard to the far left.
When the guards are standing guard, they split up in 3 shifts. The stand for 2 hours, and then they have 4 hours rest. Andreas was on the first shift, standing guard by the gate. Oh man ... the chance to take a pic of my son with a bear hat, in front of a genuine red guardhouse ... that was too much a temptation for me to resist.
Kristian and Bodil found it rather amazing too. Actually to the point that they got a bit carried away and wandered to far inside the gate. So Andreas had to wave them out in his gruffy guard way. I don't think they got particularly scared.
When the changing of the guard was over, we got a chance to communicate a little bit with Andreas. The thing is, the day before he'd asked me to make a courgette cake, he could bring and split with the other guys - but he forgot to take it along, and we thought of it, when we were driving to the train station.
We decided I should bring it along, then he would try to figure out a way I could give it to him.
He chatted a bit with the sargeant, who sent out a guard to get it. People looked funny, when a big guard came out, and I handed him a shopping bag with the remark "Guard - present courgette cake" and a smile... He was nice and said thank you very much ... they are just big boys, those guards...
At that point we'd been looking at guards for about an hour, so we were ready to move on and find some place to eat lunch. We said goodbye to Andreas, who could look forwards to going back and forth across the driveway for the next two hours.
At least it was easy for him to see where to walk - there is a line of blacktop that is worn down to a shine across where the guards always go. I am thinking that walk gets a bit boring when you have the shift from 2 to 4 in the morning...
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