Windsor, England
The thick crowds that lined the streets in Windsor on Thursday, where Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating her 90th birthday, opted for flowers (lots of carnations, said to be the monarch’s favorite), cakes (one shaped like a corgi), cards (many homemade) and a giant stuffed bulldog.
Wearing a bright, lime-green coat dress and hat — she likes to be spotted in a crowd — the queen mingled with thousands of well-wishers during a 30-minute walkabout. She cheerfully accepted dozens of cards and flowers.
“At 90, she is still doing this. I think she’s just wonderful,” said Jeanette Standee, 64, a self-described royalist who made the queen a birthday card and wears a watch whose face sports a picture of the monarch.
There is a much more festive mood in the air than there was in September, when Elizabeth II became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, surpassing her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. At the time, royal-watchers said she was reluctant to mark that milestone, in part because her reign began with the death of her beloved father.
But there was an undeniable lightness on this sunny spring day while throngs sang “Happy Birthday” and snapped pictures on their smartphones as the queen walked by.
At one point, she stopped to talk to “The Great British Bake Off” winner Nadiya Hussain, who showed her the orange drizzle cake she whipped up for the occasion.
Elizabeth II has spent nearly two-thirds of her life as head of state, and she’s still carrying out royal duties.