Wednesday, June 17, 2009

H.M. The King of Spain and H.M. The Queen of Spain to visit Australia

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25646955-26040,00.html

The Australian reports that

SPANISH King Juan Carlos arrives in Australia next week for his first official visit in 21 years as Spain rediscovers the Asia-Pacific.

In Sydney, Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia will open Australia's first Cervantes Institute, a Spanish culture and language agency that has made Asian expansion a priority with new centres in Beijing and Tokyo.

The June 24-26 royal tour will be their first state visit since 1988, when they attended the Brisbane Expo. (Their visit to the 2000 Olympic Games was a "private" one.)
[bold type in the original]
The article contained the following interesting trivia:

In 1606, [Pedro Fernandez de Quiros] mistook present-day Vanuatu for the great south land, or Terra Australis, and christened it "Austrialia," a reference to the Austrian Habsburg ancestry of the Spanish king. Tweaked by Matthew Flinders, the name stuck.
Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Gregory Barbarigo, Bishop, Confessor, A.D. 2009

3 comments:

Joshua said...

Will Their Royal Highnesses be visiting New Norcia? While "the glory has departed", that monastery has strong links to the Spanish Throne; the hotel in the township was originally built by the good monks as a fitting holiday home for the late Queen Isabella, a great patroness of New Norcia in its heyday, though she never quite made it to W.A.

Cardinal Pole said...

I'm not sure whether the Royal party will be visiting New Norcia, Joshua. The article only mentions Sydney, though it does not say that that's the only place they'll be visiting. It would be nice if they were to pay a visit, though, given what you've said about the history of N.N. (On a related point, I wonder if they'll be visiting, in their official capacity, any other Catholic venues?)

Anonymous said...

I wish they'd come to our next Newman Association meeting.