Orange explosion for Koningsdag!

The first royal birthday party, Queen's Day, was celebrated in August in 1885 in honour of Queen Wilhelmina. The date was changed in 1949 to the birthday of the new queen Juliana on April 30th. When Beatrix became queen, she kept the date to honour her mother. King Willem-Alexander, whose birthday is on April 27th was crowned last year so the date for the party is now on his birthday (unless it falls on a Sunday, in which case the party is on Saturday). So, the first ever King's Day was celebrated in the Netherlands today and Amsterdam exploded with the festivities!

To celebrate the trading history of the Dutch, the day begins with a city-wide “vrijmarkt” where residents sell their second hand goods on the street. It is the world’s biggest garage sale. Children get in on the action by setting up stands on the streets where they hustle passers-by to purchase homemade cakes and juice. Walking from the tram to the museum was difficult for us as the streets were packed with goods and people all decked out in orange.

Orange is everywhere to honour the royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau. In addition to orange attire and accessories, orange balloons decorated restaurants and market stalls as well as boats in the canals. Dutch flags and orange pennants were flying proudly from buildings and canal boats. Throughout the city, huge parties were held in paid venues as well as on the streets where DJ’s were spinning their music.

We had tickets to Anne Frank House this morning. It was tricky getting into the City Centre as many transit routes had been cancelled or modified but we made it with 5 minutes to spare for our very moving information session and tour. Roads had been closed and special rules were in effect for boat travel on the canals. The large canals were limited to one way traffic, at least where there wasn’t grid lock. Alcohol was not permitted near the driver, but either “near” was not defined, or the rule was loosely followed. Loud music was not allowed, however, this rule did not appear to cramp the style of the on-board DJs who played their music to be heard by the masses.

This photo was taken around lunchtime when the festivities, which continued well into the night, were just getting started… What a birthday party!