Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Dutch State Visit - Day 1 *

This morning the clearing up of all things lost in translation state visit of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to the Grand Duchy started when the Hereditary Grand Duke warmly welcomed her at Findel Airport at 11 a.m. Together the two made their way to the palais grand-ducal where Her Majesty was also greeted by the grand ducal couple as well as various ministers, before she inspected the guards together with the Grand Duke.

While our main objects of concern stayed home, the Dutch queen, accompanied by prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, visited the Kanounenhiwwel to lay down a wreath at the Monument national de la solidarité luxembourgeoise. Afterwards she reunited with her Luxembourgish counterparts for lunch. It is interesting to note that both Grand Duke Henri and Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume chose to wear Nassau-coloured ties, while the Grand Duchess opted for her - and my - beloved Elie Saab (Fall 2011 Ready-To-Wear Collection).

The afternoon activities started with a few audiences for Queen Beatrix. Accompanied by the grand ducal couple and their eldest son, she then visited the Cercle Cité were the guest from the Netherlands was welcomed by Luxembourg's major Xavier Bettel with a speech, followed by a short reception.

Afterwards Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume as well as the Queen met with business representatives to take part in a conference titled "Strengthening business climate in Europe".

Please, you must excuse me, but...
Someone call satan and tell him to get on his long johns 'cause hell just might freeze over: The Grand Duchess got herself a hairdresser. When I saw the first pictures of tonight's gala banquet - my favourite part of every state visit - I basically jumped up and down in awe. I criticized her a lot in the past for almost always wearing her hair down at tiara events, so the messy updo for the King's Dinner of the Nobel festivities last year was a little step ahead and now this. I Am Happy! Please, Madame, throw your hairdresser in the castle's oubliette and never let her/him go ;)
Oh yeah, of course Grand Duke Henri, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Queen Beatrix were also present for the dinner. With all due respect, I'll start to care about that as soon as I can get over my joy - which is enhanced by the fact that the Grand Duchess is wearing one of my favourite Lux tiaras, the bigger one of the floral diamond tiaras and Elie Saab - about Maria-Teresa's hair.

Pictures of the Queen arriving as well as visiting the Kanounenhiwwel and of the gala dinner can be found on the website of Wort. More pictures of the day's activities can be found at the cour, AD, Belga, RTL, PPE (welcoming ceremony), another PPE (Cercle Cité), yet another PPE (gala dinner), DPP, ANP, Tom Wagner and Daylife.
Telegraaf and NOS have articles including pictures and short videos, while Tageblatt and Wort have articles with photos; a short article in English is also available at Wort. Royalty Magazine offers videos of the official welcoming and the wreath laying ceremony on youtube. Naturally, RTL also covered the events in their daily news, I will post the video as soon as it becomes available - there it is. A video of the gala dinner and two others are available at NOS.
The speech of the Grand Duke can be found here and the speech of the Queen here.


Source: Wort
, Tageblatt

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