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When eighteen-year-old Princess Dagmar set off for Russia, the famed Danish author Hans Christian Andersen witnessed her departure, writing of “the king’s noble and amiable daughter.” “As she left,” recounted Andersen, “I stood in the crowd of men on the wharf where she, with her royal parents, went on board. She saw me, stepped up to me and shook my hand warmly. Tears started from my eyes; they were in my heart for our young princess. Everything promises for her happiness; an excellent family like that she has left, is that she has entered. A fortunate pair are she and her noble husband.”
The princess from Denmark received an enthusiastic welcome from her future countrymen. At St. Petersburg, where the official welcome took place, cheering spectators crowded platforms decorated with flags and flowers. So numerous were the onlookers that nearly every rooftop, window and balcony on the parade route was crammed. A witness to Princess Dagmar's arrival in Russia, S. D. Sheremetyev, who had known the tsarevich since his childhood, recalled that the princess “charmed everybody.” The festivities included fireworks, iluminations, and balls, though the events seemed to be “a burden on the Tsarevich,” recalled Sheremetyev. “But Dagmar's popularity was growing. She was seen as a key to prosperity, all the hopes were laid on her and she would light the hearts with her eyes, her simlicity and charm promised happiness and peace.”
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