Latest update on previous post: the hon. alderman has admitted to child abuse. Alledgedly of course, because only a panel of three judges can convict him of this crime. So far he remains a suspect in legal terms, but it seems an open-and-shut case to me.
Today was a beautiful day with temperatures rising to 81 F/27 C. Being the lucky so-and-so's that we are, Ren嶪 and I actually walked the entire 0.5 mile to a nearby seaside resort, Kijkduin. To recuperate from this amazing feat, we replenished our liquids at an outdoor cafe (Ren嶪's treat) overlooking the sea.
(click pics to enlarge)
(l.) Kijkduin seaside resort, (c). Ren嶪 and replenishment, (r.) me and liquids
Yesterday, the Netherlands celebrated 'Queen's Day', her majesty's anniversary. This also happens to be the 25th year of her reign, so the scale of the celebrations was larger than usual. Each year on this day, the queen visits a town and meets the locals who will typically go ballistic months in advance, losing precious sleep over their preparations, only to come up with bland displays of local crafts, folkloristic dances and other stuff you wouldn't even feed to ultra-naive tourists. But on the other hand, this is how this country communicates with its monarch and I wouldn't want to miss this tradition for the world. So yesterday, I waited for two hours behind a barrier to see the royal family visit a crafts display in the old fishing port area of The Hague.
Wherever you see Dutchies the colour orange isn't far away. For some reason, the name of our royal house, Orange-Nassau, has inspired the Dutch to adopt the colour orange as a symbol of national unity. And on a day like this, it can get really weird...
This year, the local fishing community organised a display of crafts and folklore from their past. "Ancient crafts and historic costumes" it said on the flyer. Which is quite a disturbing thought considering the fact that when Ren嶪 and I were kids, it was a fairly common sight to see women wearing this traditional dress in everyday life. We can't be that old, can we?
When the royals finally arrived, the entire display was given five minutes of royal attention before they had to visit yet another project. Things were pretty hectic and all I could do was to put my camera into rapid-fire mode and see if it could lock onto anything remotely celeb.
(l.) HRH Queen Beatrix and mr. Deetman (what's in a name), mayor of The Hague. (c.) left-to-right: Princess Margriet, sister of the queen, Princess Maxima (with hat), the immensely popular, Argentinian wife of the crown prince, Prince Willem-Alexander, the smiling guy on the right, (r.) Princess Maxima who expects her 2nd child around July, and Prince Friso, brother of the crown prince.
(l.) Queen Beatrix (far left) and her sister, Princess Margriet (far right). (c.) Queen talking to locals in historic costumes, (l.) Princess Mabel (white jacket, centre), wife of Prince Friso, and least popular of the lot. In the early nineties, she used to hang out with one of the most infamous drug barons this country has ever known, but denied all knowledge of his criminal background. As a result of this marriage, Prince Friso, second in line to the throne after his brother, can no longer succeed him as king should the need ever arise, following a government decree. In other words: he's off the hook. The drug baron btw, was killed during a drive-by shooting in Amsterdam, a few years ago.
Recent Comments