Kochi :
Concluding their five-day long India visit, Netherlands King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima left for their country on Friday evening.
Senior state government officials were present at the airport to see off the royal couple, who left by a special aircraft at 7.30 PM, an official release said here.
Earlier in the day, the royal couple visited Alappuzha to enjoy the beauty of backwaters in Kuttanad.
The royals’, who reached Alappuzha at 9.20 AM from Kochi, were received by state education Minister Raveendranath and senior state and district officials.
They were greeted by a presentation of Kerala’s traditional art forms, inlcuding ‘Ambalappuzha Velakali’ by selected students from the schools in Alappuzha.
Boarding a specially arranged houseboat, the royals undertook a two-and-a-half kilometer voyage through Punnamada lake to reach Mullakkal SN junction.
They visited a paddy field in Mullakkal village and sought details from the district authorities on the cultivation in Kuttanad, which lies below the sea level.
They left for Kochi at around 10.15 AM.
Carrying the flags of India and the Netherlands, hundreds of people gathered on both sides of the road through which the royals undertook their journey.
The couple had arrived in New Delhi on Monday on the invitation of President Ram Nath Kovind.
Kerala was the third leg of their five-day visit to India and it was their first state visit to the country.
During their two-day stay here, the royals visited the Dutch palace and a Dutch company called Ned Spice.
The occasion also saw India and the Netherlands sign an agreement on exchanging copies of archived documents in the presence of the royal couple.
State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had hosted a dinner in honour of the royals.
Vijayan had visited the Netherlands in May this year on the Dutch government’s invitation to explore possibilities of cooperation in various sectors, including water management, flood prevention and agriculture.
It was the Dutch king’s first state visit to India, following his ascension to the throne in 2013.
