29 April: Queen of the flea market
Most countries with royalty celebrate their monarch’s birthday with pomp and ceremony. The Dutch, in contrast, hold a giant open-air market.
International visitors arriving in the Netherlands on Koninginnedag often feel as if they have taken a wrong turn and ended up at a riotous Middle Eastern souk or bazaar.
Every inch of the pavement in every city, town and village in the country is taken up with people squatting on rugs and plastic selling off mostly useless but strangely intriguing bric-a-brac.
Well-used (broken) children’s toys, chipped china crockery, vacuum cleaners and Hi-Fi systems that were state-of-art when Elvis was still playing Vegas — all this and much more is on offer at very low prices. And all the while semi-professional and terrible amateur bands blast out what passes for music from just about every street corner.
This year is no different — except that the events have been moved back a day to 29 April because 30 April (the official day) is a Sunday.
Guidebooks constantly marvel at the quaint Koninginnedag customs, when the supposedly-reserved Dutch let their hair down and toast the Queen and her Royal House by covering everything in orange, buying and selling as if it was still the 1600s and indulging in lots of music, street performances and alcohol.
Royal-spotting is an important element of Queen’s Day and each year the Queen and other royals bestow an official visit on one or more parts of her realm to meet and greet her subjects. This year she will be in Almere, north east of Amsterdam. Despite some grumblings of dissent, the municipality has splashed out EUR 650,000 to celebrate the Queen’s visit.
Read full article at: Expatica Netherlands, 27 April 2006
Queensday in Maastricht: programme of activities (in Dutch)
More information about Queensday: The Queen’s official birthday, Queensday Past and Present, the Dutch Royal House
and i went...
