Charles and Camilla make first Washington visit

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Charles and his
wife, Camilla, visited the White House on Wednesday on their
first formal trip together to the U.S. capital, where memories
of the late Princess Diana are still strong.

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush were
hosting the royal couple for lunch and dinner, and Mrs. Bush
accompanied Charles and Camilla on a visit to the SEED School,
a public boarding school that offers intensive academic
education to urban students.

They were attended by the customary monster press pack at
the school in economically depressed southeast Washington,
where they toured two classrooms and other facilities.

In Melanie Brown’s eighth-grade English class, both royals
seemed comfortable as they chatted with groups of students.
Camilla asked how the food was — “Horrible with a capital ‘H”‘
was the answer — how much homework they had and how they were
punished when they misbehaved.

The prince asked whether they were allowed to go home for
weekends and watch television. “Too many channels to choose
from,” Charles said.

The couple had just come from an intimate lunch at the
White House, where they were served watercress soup, lemon sole
and apple sorbet.

The British prince and his princess consort were scheduled
for a three-day stay in Washington, with visits to the National
Institutes of Health, Georgetown University, the National
Building Museum and the Second World War Memorial.

This is the second leg on a week-long U.S. tour that began
in New York City on Tuesday and will include stops in New
Orleans and San Francisco.

In New York, the couple visited Manhattan’s Ground Zero and
dedicated the British Memorial Garden to honor victims of the
September 11, 2001, attacks.

Washington has traditionally been warm to British royalty,
but particularly took to Diana, the prince’s late ex-wife, who
was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997.

At a gala in 1990, she attracted hundreds to a
$3,500-a-plate gala to benefit the London City Ballet, the
Washington Ballet and a Washington home for children with

AIDS.

Perhaps the best-recalled Washington moment for Diana came
in 1985, when she danced at the White House with actor John
Travolta. The mystique of that event was such that the
figure-hugging gown she wore eventually sold for $225,500 at a
charity auction.

Camilla, who married Charles in April after a 35-year love
affair, has been lampooned in some American newspapers. Unlike
Diana, who drew the spotlight and sometimes upstaged her
husband, the Duchess of Cornwall has seemed content to be part
of a duo.

The royal couple will be in Washington through Friday.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan)