<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>The royal couple shook hands with the president and his wife, with Ms Budenbender bringing her hand to her chest as she smiled and chatted with Kate. (Reuters)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe royal couple shook hands with the president and his wife, with Ms Budenbender bringing her hand to her chest as she smiled and chatted with Kate.<\/p>\n
Also waiting at the airport in west London was a welcome party which included Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Matt Jukes and the British ambassador to Germany, Andrew Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>William and Kate welcomed the German president and his wife to the UK (Toby Melville\/PA Wire)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe couple then went on to meet the King and Queen in the chilly open air, outside Windsor and Eton Riverside train station.<\/p>\n
Charles opened his arms wide as Mr Steinmeier approached and loudly told the King: \u201cIt\u2019s so wonderful, your majesty, to see you again\u201d before giving a hearty chuckle as he placed his hand on top of the King\u2019s as they shook hands.<\/p>\n
In the bright, cold December sunshine, the royal party and their guests took part in a colourful carriage ride through the streets of the Berkshire town, led by a Sovereign\u2019s Escort from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>(Andrew Matthews\/PA Wire)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nA 41-gun royal salute was fired from the East Lawn within Windsor Home Park, timed with military precision to coincide with the King and Camilla greeting their guests at midday, before they introduced them to local dignitaries and joined them for the playing of the German national anthem.<\/p>\n
The streets were guarded by ceremonial troops from the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force, and lined with German and Union flags.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>A 41-gun royal salute was fired from the East Lawn within Windsor Home Park (Carl Court\/PA Wire)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nMr Steinmeier and Ms Budenbender will be treated to a lavish state banquet in St George\u2019s Hall this evening, which has been decorated for Christmas with a six-metre Christmas tree, grown in Windsor Great Park and featuring 3,000 sparkling lights.<\/p>\n
On Thursday morning, he will privately lay flowers at the tomb of the late Queen Elizabeth II in the castle\u2019s St George\u2019s Chapel, before joining the King and Queen for a Big Help Out reception to showcase the impact volunteering can have on communities.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Mr Steinmeier and Ms Budenbender will be treated to a lavish state banquet in St George\u2019s Hall this evening (Kin Cheung\/PA Wire)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nBefore a formal farewell, they will be shown the State Sleigh, which was designed by Queen Victoria\u2019s German-born husband, Prince Albert and recorded in Victoria\u2019s diary in 1845.<\/p>\n
State visits, which capitalise on the soft power of the royal family to strengthen diplomatic ties overseas, have moved from Buckingham Palace to Windsor for the next few years while reservicing work continues at the London royal residence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.independent.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email The royal family have welcomed the German president and his wife to the UK for a historic state visit. The Prince and Princess of Wales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2186128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2186127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Royals-welcome-German-president-for-first-state-visit-in-27-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186129,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186127\/revisions\/2186129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2186128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}