The King has surprised well-wishers on his first overseas tour as monarch – a whistle-stop visit to Germany.
He and his wife, Queen Camilla, were greeted with military honours at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate early on Wednesday (local time).
Then came a glittering state banquet in the German capital, hosted by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The monarch, whose visit is designed to help reset Britain’s relationship with Europe after Brexit, surprised the gathered crowd by delivering the first half of his speech in German.
“My wife and I have been so deeply touched by the warmth extended to us in Germany,” he said in German.
“I have visited Germany more than 40 times, a sign naturally which of course shows how important our relationships are to me, but also, I fear, of just how long I have been around.”
He went on to joke about some of those earlier trips.
“I also think fondly of the time my wife and I sampled Bavarian sausages at a farmers’ market in Munich, and found ourselves drinking beer and waltzing around at the Hofbräuhaus,” he said.
“I can understand why St Boniface, an English monk, who is famous for having preached in Germany, is also a patron saint of brewers.”
His speech followed one from Mr Steinmeier, who mentioned his sadness at Britain’s 2020 decision to leave the European Union.
“Today, on the day six years ago when Britain began its exit from the European Union, we are opening a new chapter in our relations,” he said in a translated speech.
“Together as friends and partners, we are now looking ahead.”
The King and Queen had been due to travel first to France, but that part of their tour was cancelled due to violent social unrest over President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law.
The importance of their visit to Germany was underscored by the German fighter jets that escorted the royals’ plane into Berlin – where the King was the first visiting head of state to be given a ceremonial welcome at the capital’s most famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of Germany’s division during the Cold War and subsequent reunification.
During the couple’s three-day visit to Berlin, the eastern state of Brandenburg and the northern port city of Hamburg, the King was expected to address issues facing both countries such as sustainability and the Ukraine crisis, as well as commemorate the past, according to Buckingham Palace.
On Thursday, he will address the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag – which he last addressed in 2020 as Prince of Wales – and meet some of the one million Ukrainians that have taken refuge from war in Germany.
He will later meet representatives from a joint German-British military unit for a demonstration of their bridge-building amphibious vehicles in Brandenburg.
On Friday, he will visit a church in Hamburg that was destroyed by allied bombing in World War II, and meet representatives of firms deploying green technology in the port.
Also on Thursday, the King turned his hand to cheese-making on a visit to an eco-village near Berlin.
“We heard that the King is a great cheese lover,” said Katja von Maltzan, who runs the Brodowin farm 80 kilometres north-east of the capital with her husband.
Describing the monarch as an “organic pioneer par excellence”, Ms von Maltzan said the King would help make a unique new cheese, pouring the mixture into a mould by hand and smoothing it out.
The King, a long-standing advocate of organic farming, will also tour the outlying eco-village and learn about sustainable agriculture and the protection of wetlands.
To top the occasion, the farm’s master confectioner will present him with a life-sized crown made of white chocolate, decked with sugar icing gems and modelled on the crown he will be wear at his coronation in May.
-with AAP
