Look who's coming to my neighboorhood

Charles and Camilla to go straight to Ground Zero: Times of London

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall headed straight to Ground Zero in Manhattan after they stepped onto US soil on their first foreign visit together.

The chartered plane carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and their 16-strong entourage, touched down in fine weather at New York's JFK airport, after leaving RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire at 9am.

Camilla, who has been trying to project a more glamorous image, was wearing a red Italian wool crepe jacket and dress, with velvet chiffon trim by designer Roy Allen.

At Ground Zero, their first ever official duty on foreign soil, they were met by New York Governor George Pataki, British Consul General Sir Phillip Thomas and Kenneth Ringler, Executive Director of the Port Authority which owns the World Trade Centre site.

They paid an emotional visit to the Family Room, a small room set aside for the relatives of those killed and open to them 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The walls are plastered in personal mementos, photographs, birthday cards and tributes from military services around the world. A model of the twin towers is enshrined under a white arch topped with a dove. There are seats inside for the bereaved to sit and grieve and several windows overlooking the site.

"For so many this is their graveyard," a Port Authority spokesperson said.

I walk the long path from Broadway to the Hudson River each day at north end of the site of the World Trade Center and we encounter tourists all the time. Today the tourists were not only in my building but walking through my floor which is very unusual because we deal with data subject to SEC privacy rules.

I suspect they were part of the entourage.