Royal farewell between graffiti and tulips

Ending a state visit, with four kings and a princess in a street art center has its own thing.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
18 April 2024 Thursday 17:20
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Royal farewell between graffiti and tulips

Ending a state visit, with four kings and a princess in a street art center has its own thing. Last night, Kings Felipe and Letícia gave a reception, in which the floral ornaments of tulips were not missing, to their counterparts William and Máxima, accompanied by Princess Amalia, in an old shed in the port of Amsterdam, converted in the Straat Museum, where graffiti is exhibited and where some urban artists are invited to shape their alternative murals.

The evening was not only the farewell of the two royal couples, it was also the meeting between them and each other, since throughout the day yesterday queens Máxima and Letícia had a parallel agenda to that of Felipe and William They, in their capacity as heads of state, took part in events of an economic, institutional and scientific nature in The Hague, while they chose to support a social project in Amsterdam with their presence.

Queens Máxima and Letícia traveled in the morning to a district of Amsterdam where immigrants and people at risk of social exclusion live, which, compared to some suburbs of large Spanish cities, looked like an upper-class neighborhood. There they visited the Lab6 premises, a kind of social centre, where psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers help vulnerable teenagers with adjustment difficulties and provide them with tools for their social development. The uniqueness of the center is that it has open doors, anyone can access it without an appointment and it mainly treats drug addicts on the verge of relapse or young people in a situation of despair for any reason. The Mind Us foundation participates in the initiative, as mental health problems are one of the growing areas of concern, especially after the pandemic. Queen Máxima is Honorary President of Minds Us and, like Queen Letizia, has everything to do with mental health awareness among her priorities.

One of the many things the two queens have in common is having suffered the loss of their respective younger sisters when, due to mental health issues, they both took their own lives.

The joint activities of Màxima and Letícia yesterday were completed with their attendance at the Tuschinski Theatre, home of the Xth Spanish Film Festival in Amsterdam, where, at the end of the broadcast of the film CampeoneX, they witnessed part of the talk in which the director of the film, Javier Fesser, intervened.

For the morning activities, Letícia, in an orange dress and pink coat by Carolina Herrera, wore medium heel shoes. Later, during the reception that took place at the Straat Museum, the Queen, unlike the night before, moved through the aisles of the museum and stood upright without being hindered by her illness. She wore a night blue dress with a shawl neckline by the Dutch designer of Moroccan origin Mohamed Benchellal and low-heeled shoes. Máxima chose a lamé dress by Jan Taminiau.