Queen's Germany visit is 270th trip to foreign soil

The fighter jets from the German Luftwaffe, which escorted the Queen's plane as it came into land, honoured a visiting dignitary and the representative of a family with ties to the country.

Prince Philip's four sisters married German princes and during World War One, the House of Saxe Coburg Gotha was renamed the House of Windsor.

This is the 270th time the Queen, as head of state, has been on foreign soil.

She has described such state visits as an "old-fashioned way of travelling" which still have a point.

With her husband, she'll go to see what remains of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was liberated by the British 70 years ago.

One of the survivors has spoken of how it was only a liberation in the physical sense because his soul was burnt out and he could feel no joy.