The Dutch are generally a pragmatic bunch in most things but all that goes out the window today. Today is Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day. It is the birthday of one of the dead queens (Juliana) and now the national holiday. Knowing how much I abhor monarchy and all things royal you might expect that I lock myself inside the republic of Conorland (my flat) for the day but the good news is that Queen’s Day is essentially is just an excuse to have a day off work, wear orange and get pissed. Obviously you would need to be drinking to want to wear orange in the first place but the endless supply of yummy Dutch beer tends to make the sight of so much of it everywhere all the more bearable.
The other oddity of the day is what is known as the vrijmarkt (free market). This is how people can get rid of all the crap they’ve been storing at home over the years. They put it out on the street and are actually cheeky enough to try and sell it. Now we are not talking about useful/tasteful second hand items here but rather calendars from 1996, odd shoes (in both senses of the word), broken hairdryers, bent and rusty forks, chipped coffee mugs and The Guinness Book of Records from 15 years ago. The beauty is that most people are so blinded by booze and the startling reflection from everyone’s bright clothes that a lot of this junk does actually get sold.
So in the spirit of this festive day let’s all raise a glass of Heineken or Grolsch (my occasionally better half would not look kindly on you if you didn’t choose the latter) and toast all things Dutch. Here’s to dead queen’s and a country that has harboured me well for almost nine years. Happy birthday Jules!
Right I’m off to the streets to buy a used battery or a headless doll or something equally useful.
Conortje 
Have a great time. I was in Amsterdam for Queen’s Day 12 years ago – it was fantastic.
“Today is Koninginnedag”
Oh, excellent. When my toddler was first learning to speak, he would pretend to babble like he was having a conversation with someone, and it would go like this “Ka-ning-a-ning-a-ning-go-ning-da.”
I had no idea he was speaking Dutch.
So THAT’s why every one is going around like a Paisleyite wet dream and appearing startled by my obvious non-deceased state.Thanks for clearing that up.
I’ll have the Grolsch anyway.Enough of it and I’ll be able to ask for the ladies room in Dutch.
“Vyour thje fjugch iz der jjakks?” See?
Hellojed – that means you should have recovered pretty much by now so you’re ready for another visit 🙂
Fat Sparrow – was he also mysteriously drawn to the orange bibs?
HQ – I’m very impressed – another pint or two and you’ll be practically fluent
If I raise my Orange phone will that do?
Happy Day!
The Spouse Sparrow’s a recovering Prod from Norn Iron, so I believe the preference toward orange is genetic.
While I generally have fairly liberal values and much tolerance for mankind, the vrijmarkt is an abomination and all those involved in it should be incarcerated in dismal conditions for an exceptionally long time.
Each year, without fail, my front window becomes a display case for knackered electronics and ‘silver’ candelabra. This year’s offerings included a vaccuum cleaner without a pipe or a power cable, an electric toothbrush (used!!!) and two incomplete packs of playing cards (so incensed was I, I actually checked each and evey card).
Now, it may be the case that my somewhat negative attitude towards this occasion derives from the fact that the vrijmarkt begins at 9.00, and I had only been in bed for a couple of hours. Sleep deprivation is usually not conducive to harmonious relations with the outside world. This was compounded by the arrival of one of those dreaded organs about which you’ve written. They’re evil at the best of times, but are the very devil incarnate when I’m suffering after a night out.
When I left home this morning, I smiled to myself satisfied in the knowledge that the dreaded evil of the vrijmarkt was over for another year. Only to discover that the pavement was still littered with the detritus left by the baying mob of hungry shoppers. Detritus which, I might add, included lots of pairs of knickers. My satisfaction was thus short-lived.
Come the revolution and my rapid ascent to power in the Netherlands, I will ensure that this appalling event is consigned to the dustbin of history. Along with all the knickers.
You got an Orange head today?
I never understood the Dutch fascination with orange. At the last World Cup, on TV I remember seeing a heaving mass of orange in the stands. If the aim was to make the opposing team seasick or something like that, then it worked.
Or maybe it was just me.
Grannymar – every little helps as they say 🙂
Fat Sparrow – well seeing as this is the birthplace of that whole orange circus they’d feel right at home here
Jovica – you need a holiday. You need to take a good friend with you. they need to be Irish.
Manuel – today it’s more amber tinged with florescent yellow
Dario – It baffles me too – it’s horrible – Unnless it’s to appear in a tango commercial chances are no man in his right mind would own anything of that colour
Your hints are, as always, impeccably subtle.
I’ll get researching right away.
On how to change my citizenship 😉
Jovica – are you seriously considering becoming Dutch?
Dario – the technical answer is that Orange is the name of the Dutch royal family (they are Princes/Princesses of Orange-Nassau). But as a republican and someone with (more than?) rudimentary rudimentary taste I agree with all the previous speakers. It is a horrible colour, and I hereby vow that I will never own or wear any orange garment (including underwear).
On vrijmarkten – funny to see how we fool all the foreigners into believing that Dutch people actually buy all that rubbish. They don’t. Dutch people sell it, only foreigners buy it. At least according to my own infallible observation.
Although this year in my neighbourhood I also spotted quite a few expats trying to sell some stuff (almost bought a water pipe from a curly-haired Italian with a nose ring).
Have just found your brilliant blog. Am green with envy, or should that be orange and green? Having never been to the Netherlands but about to go at the end of June, your insights into the country are illuminating. As another royalophobe, I find the idea of Queen’s Day appalling though it looks like it’s just another of those local excuses for a right royal knees up.
Nick – Thank you for your kind words – I’m certainly blushing with an orange tinge!
hihd – did the Italian’s price exceed your 50 cent budget for koninginnedag crap?
Oh yes, he asked 20 euros for the bloody thing! But he was cute so I have forgiven him.
Went past Vlissingen, on the way to Antwerp on the 30th now I know what all the orange balloons were about, and why there were lots of Dutch people wearing more orange than a July 12th march in Portadown.
Cool site, by the way….found on Hanagar Queens favourite list.
Cheers Tim
hidh – That’ll be your downfall you know 🙂
Tim – Welcome – nice to see you here – just had a look at your blog – really great and wonderfully different! That reminds me of the joke about what the Orange order’s calendar looks like, January, February, March , March, March 🙂
Conor, I know! I was saved just this time by the boyfriend, who kept me to the straight and narrow, the bastard…
Cheers Conor, I’ll raise a glass of Dutch beer in Antwerp next time I’m there, next week, probably piss off the Belgians, but I can see past the Oranje in Oranjeboom which beats( in my own humble opinion) their Duval and Chimay even if they think it’s great.
Hi, it’s so funny to read how you describe Queens Day from an ‘Irish’ perspective 🙂 And you’re so right, loving the monarchy is not required to be crazy about Queens Day anyway… Cheers from Nijmegen, Lieke