King Charles IIIandQueen Camillaare gearing up for their first royal tour since Charles ascended the throne.
On Friday, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles and Camilla will travel to France and Germany ahead of the coronation for the first overseas visits of the new reign. The five-day visit will take place from March 26 to March 31.
While Charles has officially traveled the world for decades in his role as the Prince of Wales while supporting his late motherQueen Elizabeth, this is his first landmark tour as head of state and King.
“The visit will celebrate the U.K.’s relationship with France and Germany, marking our shared histories, culture and values,” a palace spokesperson said. “It is also a chance to look forwards and show the many ways our countries are working in partnership, whether that be to tackle climate change; respond to the conflict in Ukraine; seize trade and investment opportunities or share the best of our arts and culture.”
The tour, which kicks off with the couple’s arrival in France on Sunday, March 26, will see Charles and Camilla take on between 25-30 different engagements across the two countries.
King Charles and Queen Camilla.OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
Camilla and Frau Büdenbender are set to visit the Komische Oper in Berlin to learn more about the opera company’s outreach projects and community engagement. While in Brandenburg, King Charles will meet representatives from a joint German/U.K. military unit and see a demonstration of their bridge-building amphibious vehicles.
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In Hamburg, Charles and Camilla will visit the St. Nikolai Memorial, the remains of a church that was destroyed when the Allies bombed the city during the Second World War. Charles and the German President will lay remembrance wreaths. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing. The palace said that Charles will also be shown more about the port of Hamburg’s adoption of green technologies.
Some royal watchers had speculated that Charles and Camilla would concentrate on one of the countries of the Commonwealth for the new monarch’s first official tour. However, the two European capitals have apparently been chosen to underscore historical links with European neighbors in the aftermath of the U.K. leaving the European Union and the war on Ukraine. Palace officials point out that all travel is at the request of the British government and follows invitations from the two countries as well. There is clearly an enthusiasm among the two neighbors to be the first destinations of Charles’s reign.
Officials do point out, however, that the first incoming state visit of Charles' reign was from a Commonwealth country when the South African president visited last fall. Charles also met with the leaders of the 54 nations within the Commonwealth at the funeral of his late mother and will do so during Commonwealth Day later this month and at his coronation in May.
Despite acouple of egg-throwingincidents, Charles and Camilla have been enthusiastically welcomed during outings around the U.K. During a visit to Bolton in January, whenthey stepped out in the wakeofPrince Harry’s memoir,Spare, they went on a walkabout for 20 minutes shaking hands with many of the 3,000 people who turned out to greet them.
King Charles and Queen Camilla at Sandringham recently.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Suzanne Hartop from St. James’s Daisy Hill primary school told PEOPLE about the “once in a lifetime opportunity” of meeting the King. “He had a lot of people to get through but he shook hands and spoke to as many as he could,” she said.
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The palace said that Charles has made 35 official visits to France, and 29 to Germany, while Camilla has been on eight official visits to France, and three to Germany. They last visited France in 2019 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Landings and traveled to Germany (Berlin) in 2020 to mark the country’s National Day of Mourning for victims of war.
source: people.com
