Tuesday, April 16, 2013

State Visit to Austria - Day 2

Today, Grand Duke Henri and his youngest son Prince Sébastien are celebrating their respective birthdays. The Grand Duke got (at least) one cake from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, so I hope that someone also baked something nice for Seb because turning 21 is a big deal in the United States were he is living at the moment.

The birthday boy who is currently statevisiting - I still think that should be a verb - Austria and his wife started their second day in Vienna with two meetings; at first they met Barbara Prammer, who is the as President of the National Council of Austria, and later the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.

Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand-ducale

Afterwards, they attended an Austro-Luxembourgish economic forum which was jointly organised by the two country's chamber of commerces as well as Luxembourg for Business and served as the central point of today's activities. After an official luncheon given by aforementioned Mrs Prammer at Epstein Palace, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess visited the Austrian National Library, which is home to about 7.4 million items.

Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand-ducale

Next up was a meeting with Yuri Fedotov, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which is based in Vienna, before the Grand Ducal Couple attended the signing of partnership agreements between the University of Luxembourg and three Austrian universities in Vienna and Innsbruck. In his speech the Grand Duke underlined and thanked for the equality between Austrian and Luxembourgish students in Austria.

Photo: Pierre Matge / Tageblatt.lu

To round off the day, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa gave an official reception in honour of the Austrian presidential couple at the famous Albertina. Other guests included the head of the House of Habsburg, Archduke Karl of Austria also known as Karl Habsburg-Lothringen.

The Grand Duchess appears to be wearing everyone's beloved Elie Saab; she has the same or a very similar dress in blue that she wore at the incoming Dutch state visit last year. That's how you do it!

A news report about today's day activities can be found at RTL, pictures are available at the cour, Revue, Tageblatt, Getty Images and Wort. More pictures of meeting Mr Faymann are located on the website of the office of the federal chancellor.


Source: RTL, Gouvernement.lu

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