Duchess Kate slides down kids' slide in solo visit to Denmark

Duchess Kate arrived in Denmark Tuesday for a rare solo overseas trip and wasted no time showing her fun side.

Kate, 40, whizzed down a slide while visiting the Lego Foundation PlayLab at University College Copenhagen.

“In the spirit of where I am, I had to do it," a laughing Kate said after she emerged from the slide.

Kate's visit to Denmark, her second official visit there as a royal and her first overseas tour since 2019, is focused on children and specifically young children ages 5 and under.

The duchess, a mom of three young kids, is touring the country to learn more about how Denmark has become a model for early childhood development, according to Kensington Palace.

Kate has made early childhood development a focus of her royal work. In 2021, she launched the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood, which she said is designed to "raise awareness of why the first five years of life are just so important for our future life outcomes, and what we can do as a society to embrace this golden opportunity to create a happier, more mentally healthy, more nurturing society."

Kate's trip to Denmark marks the first time she has brought the work of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood "to the international stage," according to Kensington Palace.

In addition to visiting the Lego Foundation PlayLab, Kate spent time Tuesday with first-time parents and researchers from the Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project at the University of Copenhagen and visited the Copenhagen's Children's Museum.

Kate's two-day trip to Denmark is also a chance for the future queen consort to highlight the ties between Britain and Denmark.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee this year, while Denmark's Queen Margrethe is celebrating her Golden Jubilee. The two monarchs have both recently been touched by COVID-19, with Queen Margrethe now recovered from a mild case of the virus and Queen Elizabeth currently experiencing "mild, cold-like" symptoms after recently testing positive for the virus , according to Buckingham Palace.

On Wednesday, Kate will receive an official welcome to Denmark from Queen Margrethe and will join the queen's daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Mary, in a visit to a project that supports women and children affected by domestic violence.