Obamas get royal welcome at Buckingham Palace

President Barack Obama received a royal 41-gun salute at Buckingham Palace Tuesday to begin a two-day state visit aimed at ensuring the United States and Britain keep the “special” in their relationship.

The royal family, who just last month enthralled the world with a wedding for Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave Obama and his wife Michelle a taste of carefully choreographed pomp and pageantry.

Ceremonial cannon sounded 41 blasts as Queen Elizabeth, her husband Prince Philip, heir to the throne Prince Charles and Charles’s wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, escorted the Obamas onto the palace’s west terrace for a formal arrival ceremony.