Frederik attended a weightlifting championship in Hillerød, located in the greater Copenhagen area.
Goddag, Deres Kongelige Højhed... - Hillerød Posten
I'll translate this little article in full because it demonstrates how good Frederik is in dealing with people face to face, rather than standing and giving speeches and being "official".
Translation of article in Lokalavisen for Hillerød.
Goddag Deres Kongelige Højhed - Hello your (*) royal Highness
Written by John Jessen Hansen.
"Hello, Finn" was the greeting of Crown Prince Frederik to Finn "Baker" Jensen, when he Saturday at 11.00 got out of the car at Ålholmhallen (sports arena) to take in Ålholm Cup for children and youths as the guest of honor.
"Hello, your Royal Highness", replied Finn "Baker", shook his hand and bowed deeply.
"I bloody hell didn't know to address him but then I discovered that he said (informal) you to me so I dropped "your Royal Highness" and addressed him for the next hour and a half as Crown Prince Frederik.
I was very fond of the Crown Prince before I met him. Now I just think he is an utterly fantastic person. Imagine, he said (informal) you to me and I'm honored about that", says Finn "Baker".
(*) DK lesson: Informal you =
du.
Formal you =
De.
When you address someone with a title using formal you =
Deres exellence XX.
If you used informal you =
din exellence XX it would sound wrong and be considered rude.
Another example of the usage of formal and informal you, albeit in a pre 1970's context:
Imagine a somewhat intoxicated man about to leave a pub and being stopped by a waiter:
"
Deres hat, hr.
De kan da ikke gå uden
Deres hat = Your hat, sir. Surely you cannot leave without your hat".
"
Din hat, makker.
Du kan da ikke gå uden
din hat - Your hat, mate. Surely you can't leave without your hat".
Get the difference?
And I agree with you PrincessDianafan the distance between the DRF and the people isn't that big.
Members of DRF have previously never signed autographs but both Mary and Frederik seems to make make the odd exceptions, at least in regards to children.
It can be debated whether royals should sign autographs as if they were mere celebrities. I personally think they should be very careful about it.
But then it can be very difficult to dissapoint a child and you also have to take into account whether dissapointing a child will create a worse impression than signing your autograph from time to time.
I don't think he discarded your books. In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if he read them himself in bed or on the plane.
Frederik incidentally have eaten at least one live spider, in order to impress children. He succeeded!
(From the portrait book about him).
