The soldiers guarding the Royal Palace in Oslo are also feeling the summer heat. They were served water Thursday evening, yet on the whole it’s business as usual for them.
The Royal Guard stands outside the Royal Palace all day, every day. Each guard’s shift normally lasts two hours, but this can be adjusted during periods of extreme weather.
—“On particularly hot or cold days, the Commander of the Guard can reduce the length of the shift to just one hour, or however long is reasonable,” says Lars Strøm to the Norwegian News Agency. He is head of communications in the Armed Forces.
With an outside temperature of 30°C (86°F) in Oslo on Thursday, which is felt closer to 40°C (104°F) under the Royal Guard’s thick wool uniforms, even the soldiers need to replenish their fluids. The Norwegian News Agency got to witness Thursday evening the soldiers of the Royal Guard serving each other water while on duty.
—“Even our best soldiers absolutely must drink water to be able to carry out their duties. Remember to drink water and enjoy your summer!” Strøm says.
The Royal Guard wears the same wool uniform year-round, but the clothes worn under the uniform vary by season.
—“In the wintertime the soldiers of the Royal Guard will often wear several layers of wool under the uniform. In the summertime they just wear t-shirts,” Strøm says.
This royal guard bullshit is one of the more understated reasons why monarchies are garbage, imagine dying of heat stroke because of TrAdItIoN. I doubt Norwegian royalty is even a tourist attraction like the fur hat guys in
I doubt Norwegian royalty is even a tourist attraction like the fur hat guys in
The Norwegian royal family and royal guard are maybe less known internationally, but you’d still be surprised at how much John Cheese is willing to gawk at any quaint™ European royal guard with a funny costume. LoSt tOuRiSt rEvEnUeS is of course a nonsensical argument in any monarchy, though.
I forgot where I read it from, but France is making more monarchy-related money from tourists than TERF Island because they
’d the monarchs and let people tour the palaces and shit.Hey all of a sudden I’ve got an idea how the US could go back to being a premiere tourist destination again…
As if you couldn’t have soldiers prancing around in silly 19th century costumes for the benefit of tourists in a republic.
You could have even more tourism and funny royal guards if you replaced the king with a bunch of reenactors doing tours while playing whichever kings were interesting.
Also deliberately trampling children
“Look, I could be self-actualizing right now but standing outside the home of one of the world’s last vestiges of hereditary nobility wearing a wool suit in the summer sun til I get heat stroke somehow involves less reckoning with the fleeting nature of my time on this planet.”
This whole article has a strong undercurrent of ‘Back in my day, those soldiers woulda been built different and not needed that water.’
Fucking amazing how the monarchist brain still survives, but then again it was defeated by Capital and is thus not a threat to it, so it’s allowed to linger and occasionally kill someone.
Monarchism can kill a few people. As a treat
Edit: Also, what makes you read the article with that tone? If anything I’d say it’s overly “wow look at our dutiful boys in plumed bowler hats”
Stuff like ‘even the soldiers need to replenish their fluids’ or ‘Even our best soldiers absolutely must drink water to be able to carry out their duties’.
Soldiers?! Drink WATER?!?!?!!? They are humans. Of course they gotta drink water. Why does this article exist?! It’s so stupid that it gives me that vibe.
Like, I know it’s a basic-ass fluff piece, but it’s also all about how this fucking dumbass tradition of having guys in woolen uniforms guard a building in the summer heat is oh so whimsical and traditional. Paints it as good, basically. I dunno I may just be irony poisoned.
I see.
Climate change, the unexpected harbinger of Norwegian republicanism! I mean, who would volunteer to put up with this crap, and for what? Seriously! To defend some state-mandated celebrity? I’d feel embarrassed if I were so young and subjecting myself to these sorts of conditions over something so nonsensical.
I swear, some day the soldiers of the Royal Guard are going to begin dropping like flies as not even water will be enough to cool them down. Maybe they’ll eventually start entertaining the possibility of changing their uniforms to something more befitting of our changing climate, but even that might not be enough. Maybe they’ll have to do shifts of less than even one hour, at the same time as they’ll have a hard time finding new soldiers willing to risk their lives standing still doing nothing. Maybe the “all day, every day” thing will start to have holes of increasing size.
Who knows.
If nothing else they should arrest life guard regiments for fashion crimes. A crested bowler hat?
The sillier your parade soldiers are dressed, the fancier and better for tourism they are.
