Sweden’s royal couple, King Carl XVI Gustaf, 80, and Queen Silvia, 82, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in Stockholm on Saturday.
After a church service, they sailed through the capital’s waters in the royal barge, followed by an open-top carriage ride past cheering onlookers.
The journey was due to end at a concert stage in the city, where music from the past 50 years was to be performed.
The concert at the Royal Opera House for Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia is also set to be a journey back in time. They had also attended a concert there on the eve of their wedding on June 19, 1976.
The cult band ABBA had performed "Dancing Queen" in honour of Queen Silvia on that occasion.
The royal couple plan to round off the evening with a dinner with family and friends.
Silvia, dressed entirely in red, and her husband, in a smart suit, celebrated together with their family. Only Princess Estelle, the daughter of Crown Princess Victoria, was missing: She is currently on a language study trip abroad.
The golden wedding anniversary marks not only 50 years of marriage between Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia, but also half a century for Silvia as queen. She acquired this title upon marrying her husband, who was already king at the time.
She had met him a few years earlier at the Olympic Games in Munich, where the future queen was working at the time.
Together, the couple have three children - Crown Princess Victoria, 48, Prince Carl Philip, 47, and Princess Madeleine, 44 - and nine grandchildren.
