Today is Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, the day the Dutch celebrate the birthday of the Queen. The current Queen’s birthday is actually in January but she chose to keep Queen’s Day as her Mother’s birthday since most of the festivities happen outdoors and the Spring weather is generally more conducive. The hallmarks of Queen’s Day are people dress up in orange, the colour of the Royal house and also the Dutch national colour, and cities turn into massive flea markets with people selling second hand goods on all the streets.
Either the Dutch have the luck of the Irish or the Queen is very well connected as the last three weeks have been nothing but cloud, wind and rain with more forecast for the rest of the week but today dawned clear and bright and remained so the rest of the day with temperatures above 20ºC. Justin spent Queen’s Day in Amsterdam last year while Bron was in London so this year we thought we would see what happens in Delft on Queen’s Day. Given the rare beautiful sunny day, we decided to cycle the 15km to Delft, and skip the craziness of the trains.
We arrived just before mid-day expecting the city to be busy already however it was still fairly quiet. There was a stage set up in the Market square and orange balloons, bunting and streamers set up everywhere, and DJs with their own sound system set up randomly along the streets. The city filled up after lunch or so making it much more vibey.
We had a pleasant day strolling around in our orange t-shirts, soaking up the sun and atmosphere. We met up with one of Justin’s work colleagues who lives in Delft and had a drink or two on the ‘terrasje’ or terrace on the old Beestmarkt. To end the day, Justin made an awesome dinner which we washed down with a yummy glass of red wine! After the 30kkm cycle and good meal, there will be no problems falling asleep tonight!
This coming weekend we have our good Chilean friends Joan and Mayira coming to stay with us and then we join them in London the following weekend. Enjoy the Italian sun and gelato and travel safe! Looking forward to seeing you guys soon!!
Hope you had a good long weekend remembering Freedom Day on Friday and with Worker’s Day tomorrow. Bron proudly wore her Green and Gold SA Rugby jersey to work on Friday thinking of everyone at home.
Till next time, have a good week!
x
Boibs in Orange for Queen's Day!
The stage in front of the City Hall in the Market Square in Delft
Crowds browsing the market in the streets
Even the buildings get dressed up in Orange!
Enjoying the Dutch countryside!
We really enjoy the fact that although we live in a busy city, there is still a lot of open farmland all around us which we enjoy cycling around in the better weather.
Baby lambs!
We passed a few fields of sheep with their lambs between Delft and Rotterdam. In the morning these three were lying in a row in the sun panting but didn't want to move! Was too cute.
Another friendly resident on the way.
Look Mom, no hands!
A canal view between Rotterdam and Delft
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