Shortly before he left for Germany, King Felipe met Prince Albert of Monaco for lunch at Zarzuela Palace.
On Saturday, 15 October, His Majesty welcomed His Serene Highness at his residence for a meal in the context of the Prince’s visit to Spain for the centenary of Prince Albert I’s death.
There was no transcript or summary of the conversation released to the public, so we don’t know what topics were touched on during the meal.
Prince Albert was in the Iberian peninsula for a tour retracing the steps made by his great-grandfather during his work in favour of scientific research in the field of oceanography.
Previously, he travelled to the Azores, where he was welcomed by regional authorities and walked along Prince Albert I Avenue before laying a wreath at the feet of a statue of his ancestor. The archipelago, a part of Portugal, was one of the places that Prince Albert I held most dear, and he carried out roughly half of his scientific campaigns there.
The next stop was Lisbon on 14 October, where, together with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, he opened “The Oceanographer’s Friend,” an exhibition that celebrates the friendship between two sovereigns with a passion for the Earth’s water reservoirs: Prince Albert I and King Carlos I of Portugal.
Before leaving for Spain, Prince Albert II was welcomed in Lisbon’s Belem Palace (the Presidential Palace), where he received the Grand Cross and Necklace of the Order of the Infant Dom Henrique.
In Madrid, he was given a tour of two exhibitions; one was a look into what the field of oceanography looked like in Spain during the campaigns of Prince Albert I; the other was a commemorative exhibition of the work done by the Prince’s great-grandfather in the field of scientific research in the oceans.
The lunch with King Felipe was the last event before Prince Albert II travelled back to Monaco, where undoubtedly his wife and children were waiting for him.
Prince Albert I was very much attached to Spain since he trained in the Spanish Navy for two years, between 1866 and 1868, and he then returned in 1919 for the conference that marked the establishment of the Scientific Commission for the Exploration of the Mediterranean.
