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Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla pose in front of the Sphinx
Photo: AHMED HASAN / AFP
Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla are currently touring Jordan and Egypt.
And despite her advanced age - she is 74, he is 73 - Camilla does not find that they are both too old to travel long distances.
"It was pretty tough, we traveled a lot, and it was pretty bumpy," said the Queen's daughter-in-law on the return flight from Egypt.
"But afterwards I think: Ok, I'm much older than 16 years ago, but (...) we're still full of juice."
As Charles two days ago after his mother's health.
When Queen Elizabeth, 95, had been asked, he had replied that she just sensed her age, that everything wasn't as easy as it was when she was 73, by the way.
Camilla and Charles last visited Egypt in the mid-2000s.
Since her marriage to the heir to the throne in 2005, Camilla has visited Colombia, Mexico, the Galapagos Islands, India, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, among others.
Camilla emphasized that it was business trips.
"We may be dressed like tourists and photographed in front of the pyramids, but we're not on vacation," she said.
"We work for the (British) government and try to make a difference."
The trips were worth it, said the Duchess, as reported by British media on Saturday.
Numerous diplomats had assured her that the visits of the royal couple would have an important effect.
"We tried for weeks, months, years to open these doors, and when a member of the Royal Family came by it suddenly worked," Camilla quoted the experience.
Christening water for Charles' granddaughter?
In the Middle East, she was particularly impressed by the visit to the Jordan River.
That was a "spiritual" moment, said the Duchess.
At the place where Jesus is said to have been baptized, the couple received several bottles of consecrated water.
British media speculate that the water could be used for the baptism of Charles' granddaughter Lilibet.
The daughter of Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, who was born in the USA on June 4, has never met her grandfather or great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.
According to the reports, Harry and Meghan are still at odds over whether Lilibet should be baptized in the UK or the US.
mrc / dpa
