First royal solo trip abroad for Kate in the Netherlands

The Duchess of Cambridge stopped in front of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

The Duchess of Cambridge has carried out her first royal solo trip abroad with a visit to the Netherlands.

She had lunch with King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and their three daughters at the royal residence, Villa Eikenhorst, near The Hague.

Kate, 34, then visited the Mauritshuis Museum and stopped in front of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, sporting identical jewellery.

The duchess viewed 22 paintings on loan from the British Royal Collection.

Crowds lined the streets as Kate arrived, to be greeted by one of the museum's directors, Emilie Gordenker, and stopped to chat briefly with children waving Dutch and British flags, who were lined up in front of three traditional red British telephone boxes erected for the exhibition.

The duchess, wearing a suit by Catherine Walker, talks to Dutch schoolchildren lined up in front of red British phone boxes.

But it was posing in front of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring painting, wearing the jewellery on loan from the Queen, that caught the photographers' eyes.

Ms Gordenker said: "She didn't mention the earrings she was wearing but she was interested in the painting.

"She asked if it had become a lot more popular since the film came out, and I said it definitely had."

The duchess helped youths fix a bike wheel at the Bouwkeet Makers Space

The duchess helped fix a bicycle wheel when she worked with two teenagers at a public workshop in Rotterdam.

She also "shook hands" with an interactive robot made by some of the local children, during her tour of the Bouwkeet Makers Space.

The centre, which is based in an economically deprived part of the city, is a new charity-funded project designed to keep youths off the streets by teaching them a range of skills, from furniture manufacturing to computer maintenance.

Richenel Lensa, 47, a welder from Rotterdam, who volunteers at the centre, led the bike refurbishment class the duchess joined, and said afterwards: "When I met her I told her my hands were dirty but she still shook it and said 'sometimes my hands are dirty, too'.

"The kids are very happy to see that someone important has come here to see what they are doing - it's great for the kids."

Charlinic Komsi, 14, a local schoolgirl who was one of the teenagers Kate helped at the workshop, said: "I didn't know she was going to help us, and I thought 'what's she doing?' but I thought she did really well."

The duchess "shook hands" with a robot at the same workshop

The visit came a day after Prime Minister Theresa May was in the Netherlands to discuss Brexit with her Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte.

The Duke of Cambridge carried out his first solo tour in 2010, aged 27, on behalf of the Queen in New Zealand.

It was Kate's first tour alone after she cancelled a solo visit to Malta in 2014 after suffering morning sickness.