The Dutch Royal Family is continuing on their tour of the Dutch Caribbean and landed in Sint Maarten on Monday, 6 February.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands briefly switched royals to his “other” job and co-piloted the plane that flew the Dutch royals to Sint Maarten for the final leg of their Caribbean tour. The King shared in 2017 that he had been flying as a pilot for the Dutch airline KLM for over two decades.
Accompanied by his wife, Queen Máxima, and his daughter, Princess Catharina-Amalia, Willem-Alexander had a busy day in Sint Maarten.
Sint Maarten is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country covers less than half of the island of Saint Marten, with the top half a French entity.
The family continued with their aero-theme for the day as they visited the Princess Juliana International Airport to view how reconstruction work is progressing after a hurricane largely damaged the airport in 2017.
The trio also visited the Sint Maarten Medical Center to learn about the day-to-day operations of the hospital and how staff have been coping with monumental stress from the global health crisis, inflation, and other issues. The King specifically noted that the island’s remote location and the need to ship equipment from elsewhere would make things more complicated.
Willem-Alexander, Máxima, and Amalia went on a walkabout while visiting Sint Maarten to meet locals. Both Máxima and Amalia looked happy to be meeting locals, and both received hugs from children waiting to meet them.
This is Princess Amalia’s first royal tour, and she has maintained the same busy schedule as her parents. The 19-year-old Princess of Orange has been taking up more official duties along with her father to prepare for her role as Queen of the Netherlands. They have already visited Bonaire, Aruba, and Curaçao on this trip.
