Such a massive day yesterday! The last Queens Day for some time to come, as the old Queen (Beatrix) abdicated to make room for her son, the New King Willem-Alexander!
I didn’t want to miss a minute of it, and I also wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on seeing things I missed last year.
So we got up and donned our orange, and headed out on foot through the masses of crowds and street stalls. Would you like to know more?
I know it was a few days ago now, but I thought I’d share a little local colour with you! And that colour, was Orange.
On Queen’s Day every year, everyone gets their orange on and hits the streets to celebrate Queen Beatrix’s Birthday. Though Queen Beatrix was born on 31 January, the holiday is observed on 30 April as it was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. (Follow the link above for more information)
We stayed to the Centrum given where we began from and the fact that not only were we on foot, but the entirety of the public transport system was not operational owing to the sheer magnitude of people that converge on the city centre.
I actually wish we’d been closer to Vondel Park and the activities there, or that crossing Amsterdam on foot to get there wasn’t such an epic journey through the crowds.
But we had a LOT of fun watching the party boats on the canals!
I’d love to be on a boat next year! Just ambling our way around waving at everyone. Or dancing our way around the canals.
It was all so loud, and the City such a mess (I have to get used to outdoor urinals I guess) that it was kind of a relief to get home.
You might want to turn the volume down on your speakers before pressing play on the video!
But still, I can say that we have partied our first Queens Day! Happy Koninginnedag everyone!!!
As an interesting side fact, there were 100,000 LESS people in Amsterdam for Queen’s Day than there were last year!
ghoti industries 