news Obama says visit to Buckingham Palace wonderful; Queen 'delightful'

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Obama says visit to Buckingham Palace wonderful; Queen 'delightful'



Thu Apr 2, 8:22 AM





By Jennifer Loven, The Associated Press


LONDON - President Barack Obama says he spent several wonderful hours at Buckingham Palace.

"Her majesty is delightful," Obama shouted to reporters as he and first lady Michelle left the palace Wednesday night. It was the couple's first meeting with the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip.

The Queen and the prince entertained the Obamas in her private audience room, overlooking the palace gardens where thousands of daffodils and other flowers were in full bloom.

Afterward, both couples attended a palace reception for leaders of the 20 wealthy and developing economies who had travelled to London for an economic summit on Thursday.

"It was a wonderful visit," Obama said.

Hours earlier, he had said he was very much looking forward to his first meeting with the Queen.

"And as you might imagine, Michelle has been really thinking that through because I think in the imagination of people throughout America, I think what the Queen stands for and her decency and her civility, what she represents, that's very important," Obama said during a news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The Queen and the president's wife seemed to hit it off. Photographs showed them arm in arm at the reception.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president called home to tell his two young daughters he met the Queen.

"I think it was a real treat to call back and tell his kids that he'd met the Queen," Gibbs told ABC's "Good Morning America," referring to the president and his two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

The spokesman said the girls had been talking about their father's visit with the Queen in the days leading up to the trip. "This is something that genuinely interested them," he said.

The meeting, however, reminded him of another family member, Gibbs told NBC's "Today" show.

"The president remarked to me this morning that her sensibility sort of reminded him a bit of his grandmother, only with a much bigger house."