Tomorrow, April 30, is Koninginnedag or Queen's Day. It's a national holiday, so no work for Charles, and it's a celebration of the royal family. (April 30 was Queen Juliana's birthday, but when she was succeeded by Queen Beatrix, Beatrix kept the observation date because the weather on her own birthday in January was always bound to be cruddy.)
So - a celebration of the royal family. You might expect some sort of parade - pomp and circumstance and gilded carriages. Maybe orchestral concerts. Fancy parties with people in finery and fancy hats.
But the Dutch? They celebrate by not having a sales tax on Koninginnedag, so the country holds basically a national garage sale or flea market. In Amsterdam, people camp out the night before on the Dam so that they have a prime place to sell all their crap - I mean second-hand goods and wares. Everyone flocks to the cities and everyone wears orange, and everyone walks around buying each other's junk.
I'm not really a fan of crowds, and I'm not really a fan of second-hand shopping (can you tell)? So I was thinking of just staying home and hanging out in the garden tomorrow (also a VERY Dutch thing to do, thank you very much!). But I suppose when in the Netherlands we should do as the Nether-people do, at least once. So we'll put out the red, white & blue flag (the Dutch one) in the morning and try to go up to Groningen to see what all the fuss is about.
This post was written while sitting on the couch in the sunroom.
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