Queen's day adventure

Back in Amsterdam for a day to celebrate Queen's day. And what a day it was...

Queen's day, or "Koninginnedag", is a national holiday in the Netherlands on which the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands is celebrated. Actually, 30 April is the birthday of Queen Juliana (the mother of Queen Beatrix). The birthday of Queen Beatrix is on the 31 January, but the winter isn't the time to party outside. Therefore, Queen Beatrix officially celebrates her birthday on 30 April, so we can party with better weather!

While people all over the Netherlands celebrate Queen's Day, Amsterdam is certainly has the biggest collection of parties and events on 30 April. Every year 750.000 people celebrate Queen's day in Amsterdam. There are parties with bands and DJs on squares, canals and parks throughout the city. In addition, the streets of the city become one big free market (vrijmarkt). Everybody takes this opportunity to rid their homes of useless (but potentially profitable) junk, old clothes etc.

On Queen's Day most of the Dutch people wear orange clothing to contribute to the atmosphere and to express their Dutchness. The colour orange is referring to the name of our royal family, the House of Orange.

I always like to go back to celebrate Queen's day in Amsterdam, because it's just the place to be on that day. We had a really nice time strolling around the city and dancing to the music on the different squares. This picture was taken at the Weteringscircuit, with the old Heineken brewery in the background.

Since we only came over for a day from Brussels, we had to catch the train back at the end of the day. Little did we know, what an adventure that would be!

Already tired from partying the whole day, we caught the train at 20h25 in Amsterdam. Normally the train ride to Brussels around 3 hours. When we got to Roosendaal station (last station before the border with Belgium), the train did not continue. After 20 minutes or so, it was announced that somebody just had committed suicide by stepping in front of a train and that the track was closed. This happened on the bit of track that is the only connection between the Netherlands and Belgium for trains! Therefore, after one hour it was announced in the train that the train could not go on and that we had to go by bus to the first station in Belgium (Essen).

Because of Queen's day the train was obviously crowded, so a few hundred people had to be taken by bus. First only two busses arrived, but we could not get on them because there were just too may people there. After a lot of pushing we finally got on the third bus to Essen. This station was deserted, except for the few hundred people from the international train that were dropped there. After about half an hour a train came to pick us up and bring us to Antwerp Central station. From there we had to catch another train to Brussels. Unfortunately, the last train that they had kept waiting was a stop train to Brussels (which stopped at every single station between Antwerp and Brussels!!!!). In the end, we arrived in Brussels at 2 am! What a day!