Today (Tuesday, April 30) Koningin (Queen) Beatrix abdicated and her son is the now Koning (King) Willem-Alexander. After ending her tenure as Koning, Beatrix now takes the title Princess. If you want to read more about the royal family, you'll find it at the end of the blog post or google it.
The Lion King approach seems cool, but here's how it really went down. Queen Beatrix signed the paperwork and then W-A, Maxima and a bunch of other people did too. At that point he became king. Shortly after, the whole family stopped out to say hello to the crowds in Dam Square (Amsterdam) and now they've been celebrating with royals from around the world.
Photo credit: AP/Daniel Ochoa de Olza
Queen's Day (Koninginnedag):
- A day to wear red/white/blue (Dutch flag) and orange (after the royal family- van Oranje). Lots of orange!
- A day to have rummage sales- people put out all their stuff. I'd say it isn't quite a garage sale because I've noticed the prices to be quite high. Kids also participate and often trade toys.
- A day to play- many cities have carnivals set up (like here in Den Haag) and entertainment for kids and adults- music, bands, face painting, beer gardens, food, etc.
- The night before is called Koninginnenacht (Queen's night) and Den Haag is supposedly the best place to be.
I worked from home on Monday, so we were ready to go enjoy the late afternoon/evening sun. We went to the centrum and looked for a place to sit. Unfortunately, all the patios furniture was taken down at our favorite spots! We did find an open patio and sat in the sun for about 2 beers worth of time and then went back home to put on some warmer clothes and eat dinner.
Around 10pm we got on Tram 3 and headed to the city center. Everybody was in orange- hats, shirts, shoes, wigs, and more. We met up with some friends/colleagues and visited 4 different stages throughout the downtown area and listened to some rock, some reggae/rap/I don't know what, and finished it off with some jazz. We had a good mix of cultures including Dutch, Irish, American, and here's my favorite Italian, Maria:
Around 1:30am Adam and I headed home. The stages were closing down for the night. Trams stopped running about an hour before so we had a 25 minute walk. The temp was okay and the sky was clear, so I didn't mind.
Koninginnedag:
This morning we watched some TV coverage of the royal family's day. Around 1 we headed out to the vrijmarkt (free market) which is a country-wide rummage sale day. People reserve blocks of space and fill it up with....well....mostly crap. Besides that there are lots of toys, video games, clothing, food and drinks for sale and people just having a great time. We met up with our friends Donna and Joris and their new baby Zoe and walked around to see what was for sale. We also sat out at a local 'Bagels and Beans' shop and had some coffee and soaked up the sun.
Everybody comes out to look for a goedkoop (good deal)!
Big congratulations to the new king He's shorter and flatter in real life than we expected.
Entertainment for loose change! Drummers, violinists, singers and dancers.
Everybody joins in the fun- even children sell toys and books.
Showing off our love for this country in an orange Nederlands Lacrosse tshirt (me) and for our homeland with a Cup & Cone tshirt (Adam). I also have orange fingernails.
Now we're settling back down and getting that Sunday-night kind of feeling because I have work tomorrow. Adam is napping and I'm finishing this up hoping to get it posted today. I was thinking about the uniqueness of this experience. It is our 3rd Queen's Day and probably our last as residents of The Netherlands, because the future celebrations will be King's Day for a long time. Even though the transition isn't a huge political change (like say a new president or prime minister), it is still a historical moment for the country.
As Promised, More on the Royal Family:
King Willem-Alexander grew up in a somewhat normal life- attending local public schools and studying at universities in the UK and here in NL and serving in the military for a few years. He's actually the first king in a long time- it has been a string of ladies (Beatrix, Juliana, Wilhelmina)
The wife of Willem-Alexander is now Queen Maxima. Originally she's from Argentina, holds a degree in Economics and was previously an investment banker. Interestingly, her parents were not invited to her wedding in 2002 due to her father's political history in Argentina.
Willem-Alexander and Maxima have 3 daughters, the eldest (Catharina Amalia) is the crown-princess and the younger two are Alexia and Ariane.
There are also others siblings and cousins in the family. I won't get into the family tree, but I will say a few points of interest:
- The royals can't seem to have kids of both genders. Either all girls or all boys.
- Beatrix is one of 4 girls
- Beatrix had 3 sons
- Beatrix's sister had 4 sons
- Willem-Alexander and Maxima have 3 daughters
- Beatrix's son Friso has 2 daughters
- I found a hole in my story- Willem-Alexander's brother, Constantijn has 2 girls and a boy
- You lose your right to the throne if your marriage is not approved by the States-General or if you marry a Catholic. This was historically an issue because they didn't want the Spanish to take over again
- Prince Friso (brother of King W-A) was caught in an avalanche during a ski trip in 2012 and has since been in a coma.
Gefeliciteerd, Nederland. Bedankt voor de super leuk dag!
I emjoyed reading this post and hearing traditions and experiences from you life over there :) Looks like you had a good time! Love you!
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