King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia returned to The Netherlands on Tuesday for their second State Visit in 33 years. Queen Silvia had just married the King in June 1976 when she came for her first official foreign visit, an experience she remembers with fondness she said in a television interview.
View: Dutch TV interview with Swedish King and Queen in Stockholm
Queen Beatrix, whose mother Queen Juliana (lived 1909-2004) was godmother to King Carl Gustaf, greeted her guests at Rotterdam Airport. The welcome was much more restrained than 33 years ago, when the Swedish royals arrived in the capital Amsterdam by navy ship, went on a canal tour and rode to the Royal Palace in open carriages.
This time they drove to the Royal Palace in The Hague instead, where the welcome ceremony took place in the backyard of the palace, without any spectators other than photographers and camerateams.
Afterwards Queen Beatrix hosted a private luncheon for her guests, with other members of the Dutch royal family also in attendance: Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Máxima, and Princess Margriet and her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven.
From The Hague the Swedish visitors went to Amsterdam to place a wreath at the National Monument on Dam Square, opposite the Royal Palace. This palace is the usual residene for visiting heads of state, but it has yet to be reopened after a thorough internal renovation that has taken several years.
Because of the renovation all state functions have been moved to The Hague, i.e. the ceremonial welcome at the beginning of State Visits and the state banquets. The Royal Palace, which is now scheduled for a lenghty external renovation and cleaning, will reopen for the public later this year.
The Swedish royals went seperate ways after the ceremony, with Queen Silvia visiting the Amsterdam Public Library to open a small exhibition of Swedish children's books illustrations.
At Fort Kudelstaart, south of Amsterdam, they met up again to learn first hand about a work reintegration and schooling project. "They showed great interest", one of the young men said after the visit.
The first day of the visit concluded with the state banquet hosted by Queen Beatrix at Noordeinde Palade in The Hague. Her sister Princess Margriet was a last minute absentee because her second son, Prince Bernhard, underwent surgery at an Amsterdam hospital earlier Tuesday. © GPD; Photos by © Dutch Photo Press, Capital Photos, Royalblog
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