Saturday, March 17, 2012

Upcoming Dutch State Visit

Between Tuesday and Thursday next week, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will pay a state visit to the Luxembourg. It will be Her Majesty's second visit to the Grand Duchy, in 1981 she visited the fellow Benelux country for her very first state visit.

As the cour sadly hasn't published the schedule yet, I will try to do my best to translate the schedule published on the website of the Dutch royal house (I do owe a big thank you to google translator for that), so please excuse if there are any mistakes...


Day 1

Not surprisingly, Queen Beatrix will arrive on Tuesday morning at Luxembourg's only airport with a paved runway Findel, before she will be welcomed at the palais by Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa. From the palais the Queen will procede to the Kanounenhiwwel, which always plays a prominent role on Remembrance Day, to lay down a wreath. Afterwards a reception will be held at the palais, among the guests will be prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and foreign minister Jean Asselborn. Maybe it is a lost in translation but one would think it to be more plausible to host the reception first and then go to the monument.
Anyway, later on Queen Beatrix will meet the mayor of Luxembourg City Xavier Bettel, before she will attend a meeting of Luxembourgish and Dutch companies and businesses. For the meeting she will accompanied by Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. In the evening a banquet at the palais will be held.

Day 2

On the second day, Queen Beatrix will visit Belval, a district of Luxembourg's second largest town Esch-sur-Alzette and former brownfield turned scientific and cultural center. While in Belval she will also visit the part of the Université de Luxembourg situated there. She will be accompanied by the grand ducal couple. After a government lunch, the guests from the Netherlands will visit the satellite operator SES Astra. In the evening Her Majesty will host a concert by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.

Day 3

During the morning hours of the third day, accompanied by the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess, Queen Beatrix will visit the Université de Luxembourg to meet with students and other guests. Afterwards she will be received by the Dutch community, before the state visit will end with another reception at the palais.

We can expect members of the grand ducal family to accompany the invitee to most if not all the events mentioned. If you can't wait until Tuesday, have a look at the latest edition of Blauw Bloed, everyone's favourite Dutch show about royalty. (Well, it's mine. It's the only one I know. Is there another one? And yes, I watch it even though I do not understand Dutch.) At about 11:32 footage of various events relating to Dutch and Luxembourgish royals state visiting (shouldn't there be a verb for it?!) each other starts.


Source: Het Koninklijk Huis, Université de Luxembourg

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