Royals on social media, week ending August 30th 2014

Here are the highlights of the images, videos and messages shared by Europe's royal houses on their official social media sites over the last week.  And things are starting to change, like the weather..

A new look

King Felipe of Spain was the star of his official Twitter feed, @CasaReal, this week and for once it was his wardrobe choices grabbing the headlines rather those of his wife.  He was seen in an image taken at a basketball match ahead of the World Cup taking place in Spain in September sporting a very sporty checked jacket.

And days later he was photographed at an audience at the Zarzuela Palace in a light blue blazer that got a mixed response.

El Rey recibe a Pedro Alonso, nuevo director del Programa Mundial para la Malaria de la OMS http://t.co/s22BQTIpfO pic.twitter.com/ciKbnP0IZc
— Casa de S.M. el Rey (@CasaReal) August 28, 2014

At the end of the week, King Juan Carlos attended the opening of the basketball World Cup and the Twitter feed showed him cheering on the Spanish team in their first match and meeting the players afterwards.

Embracing social media

Crown Princess Mette-Marit joined Instagram on August 30th and picked up 15,000 followers in less than a day.  The princess' first photo, shared on her account crownprincessmm, showed her looking very relaxed and she announced her new channel on her official Twitter, @CrownPrincessMM.

Oh hello @instagram ... pic.twitter.com/7EzkJZRH69
— HRH Mette-Marit (@CrownPrincessMM) August 30, 2014

And the official Twitter feed of the Crown Prince and Princess, @Kronsprinsparet, retweeted an image by @Wintershall, showing Queen Sonja and Prince Haakon Magnus during their day at a conference about sealife.

Royalty @ONS_Stavanger: Queen Sonja of Norway and Crown Prince Haakon visiting #ONS2014. @Kronprinsparet #togetherONS pic.twitter.com/IEPV4p1alZ
— Wintershall (@Wintershall_com) August 25, 2014

A gathering of royals

The Dutch and Belgian monarchs were in Maastricht on August 30th 2014 for events marking the 200th anniversary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  It's one of several events celebrating the anniversary and this one had a focus on the country's international outlook.  The official Twitter feed of the Belgian Monarchy, @MonarchieBe, shared a photo of the royals attending the event who posed alongside the President of Germany, Joachin Gauck.

The Dutch Royal Household's official Twitter feed, @KHTweets, linked to the live coverage of the festivities which were provided by the 200jaarNL channel.