After the first leg of his trip to France was postponed, King Charles III arrived in Germany with the Queen Consort on Wednesday for his first overseas state visit as monarch.
When they arrived at Berlin Brandenburg Airport on Wednesday afternoon local time to begin their three-day visit, they were greeted with a gun salute and a fly past by two military jets. When the King and Queen Consort stepped off the plane, they were greeted by German officials.
They then went to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, where German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Budenbender, greeted Charles and Camilla with full military honours. The royal couple will later be honoured guests at a state banquet at Schloss Bellevue, the German president’s official residence.
The trip was supposed to begin on Sunday in France, but the first leg was cancelled due to strikes and civil unrest in the country over President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms. The French president said Friday that his government would have lacked “common sense” if it had gone ahead with the trip despite the protests, before suggesting that it be rescheduled for the beginning of summer. King Charles and Camilla said in a statement before their arrival in Germany that they were “very much looking forward to meeting all of those who make this country so special.”
Crowds gathered at the capital’s Brandenburg Gate hours before the King’s arrival, some holding UK and German flags or wearing repurposed Burger King crowns.
Charles will address the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, on Thursday. He’ll then meet some Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Germany to avoid the Russian invasion of their homeland.
