Happy Queen’s Day

I’ve escaped the madness, gone to Paris, back Sunday.
Happy Queen’s Day.

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Queensday Tomorrow

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I hope you’ve already got all the orange attire you’ll need for tomorrow. These tshirts were on sale in the weekend on Rokin.

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There was also a selection of stylish crowns.

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Queensday Controversy

April 30 is Queensday in the Netherlands, it’s the biggest national holiday. The city council website has a Queensday section with information about events, rules and maps showing the walking route. It’s all in Dutch which is strange since it’s in contrast with the stated goal from the council funded “I Amsterdam” campaign of attracting [...]

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Queen’s Day is….

Selling stuff

Crowds

Children earning money, creatively

Crowds

Outdoor Bars

Crowds (not helped by some muffin-brain trying to drive his car over this bridge)

Gezelligheid!

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Queen’s Night

Queen’s day is all about wearing orange and the vrijemarkt.

Koninginnenacht (Queen’s night) is all about wearing orange and parties. In my 5 straatjes there are about dozen outdoor parties, and the bars are all getting set up ready for tonight.
The city is really crowded, with lots of people here specifically for Queen’s day celebrations, [...]

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Queen’s Day Countdown.

Everyone, including us, has marked out their space for the vrijemarkt on Monday. Some people put discrete and neat signs in their windows, but mostly people mark the ground with their names or the word “Bezet” (occupied). It’s common to use masking tape, which no-one removes and so the remnants are on the ground for [...]

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The World’s Biggest Flea Market

 We’re on the countdown to Queen’s Day on Monday (Koninginnedag, in Dutch), the city council has published a map of the city with information for the day.
Queen’s Day commemorates the birthday of Queen Juliana, when her daughter Beatrix became queen she didn’t change it to her own birthday – thank goodness otherwise we’d be doing [...]

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How to Enjoy Queen’s Day in Amsterdam

Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day is one big city wide party, followed by one big city wide flea market. This year the population of the city rose by 300,000 for a weekend party. So it’s crowded, noisy, dirty and pretty difficult to get around. After many years of research I’ve come up with four ways [...]

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Elsewhere In Amsterdam

Queen’s Day celebrations go on all over the Netherlands, but the centre of Amsterdam is probably the busiest. This year there were about 350,000 visitors to the city (Amsterdam’s population is about 750,000), which was considered low due to the unseasonably cold weather. Given that there will be no public transport for the whole [...]

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Queen’s Day Countdown!

So it’s Queen’s Day this Saturday. This means that the whole city will be orange. Most of the centre of the city becomes an open air market for the day with everyone selling their junk. There’s fierce competition for the best positions, particularly along Prinsengracht. The images above show where people have marked out their [...]

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