Wednesday, November 5, 2014

State Visit from Germany - Day 3

In the end state visits always go over so quickly, don't they? Today was already the last day of the state visit by German President Joachim Gauck and his partner Daniela Schadt to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. But before they headed back to Berlin, there still were a number of events also attended by members of the Grand Ducal Family (well, Grand Duke Henri).
Photo: SIP / Luc Deflorenne
The Grand Duke, President Gauck and his partner firstly visited Schengen, a small village in south-western Luxembourg with a big name. In 1985, five members of the European Economic Community (West Germany, France and the Benelux states) signed the Schengen Agreement abord the M.S. Princesse Marie-Astrid near the tiny village of Schengen. Twenty-nine years forward, 26 states have signed the treaty and you can go from Lisbon to Warsaw or from the North Cape to Sicily without showing your passport once, as all the borders controls have been removed. The Schengen area's newest member is the small principality of Liechtenstein.
Photo: SIP / Luc Deflorenne
In Schengen, Grand Duke Henri and his guests visited the Schengen monument, before heading to Perl in Germany to pay a visit to the Deutsch-Luxemburgisches Schengen-Lyzeum (German-Luxembourgish Schengen school) jointly led by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the neighbouring German state of Saarland. The students of the school showed their high guests specific courses taught in their school in five workshops.
Photo: SIP / Charles Caratini
The presidential couple and the Grand Duke then travelled to Esch-Belval, a former brownfield turned scientific and cultural centre, where they visited the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), whose research focuses on the fields of Experimental Neurobiology, Computational Biology and Metabolomics.
Photo: SIP / Charles Caratini
After a luncheon hosted by the President of the University of Luxembourg, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany and his partner departed from Findel Airport at approximately quarter to three. The German guests were bid farewell by Grand Duke Henri and the Minister for the Grand Region, Corinne Cahen.

More pictures of the day on the website of the government.

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