Just another day in Leipzig, Germany. I was on my way to work. Nothing unusual, everything was quite normal – just that there were some police cars here and there. Well, maybe they were doing some random checks on drivers. More police. They even stopped traffic and turned off traffic lights. Then I saw more police on the side of the road, every few blocks an officer wearing a yellow vest. What was going on here? When I arrived at work, I asked around – nobody knew. A search for somebody? No, then they would not be so visible. It had to be some important person, I thought. But who?

Image by Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken at Flickr.com under license CC BY SA 2.0

A special visitor to Leipzig

Then, in my noon break, a colleague told me: Some king visited Leipzig. He wasn’t sure from which country – the Netherlands, he thought. The Netherlands! My country! No way, I was stuck at work! In the video above, you can see the king Willem-Alexander with his wife Maxima as they leave from their lunch with prime minister of Saxony Tillich.

Check out Willem-Alexander’s speech below from 1:46 onwards. He did it in German!

To make it easier for you, below is a transcript of what he said – personally translated to Dutch.

Leipzig is ook voor mij persoonlijk een bijzondere plek.

De plek waar ik voor het eerst het oosten van Duitsland leerde kennen.

Als piloot van Martinair was ik kort hier na de Wende, die hier begon in oktober 1989.

Overal las men: Leipzig Heldenstad. En de mensen straalden van trots.

Ik herinner me dat het was alsof de hele stad geëlektriseerd was.

De opwinding was voelbaar. Het waren drie dagen die ik nooit vergeten zal.

He said more in his speech, but it was cut out of the video.

Do you understand from the above transcript what he was talking about? Let me know in the comments below if there is something you did not understand!

Besides Leipzig, the king also visited other federal states in Eastern Germany. Reason of his visit is the deepening of trade and investment relations and the advancement of collaboration in various industrial sectors. The trip also allowed for cultural and social developments, such as 500 years Reformation, the Second World War and the reunification of Germany.