Laura Bundock, royal correspondent The Palace acknowledges this was a trip with "challenge and risk". But as they boarded the flight home, the view from the royal plane was clear: "This was a week well spent." It's certainly been a great piece of PR for theKing. It's unlikely, though, to reassure those who thought a state visit to the US was a bad idea. Questioning the sense of sending the King at a time of such strained relations.