Queen's Day

The Netherlands has a holiday every year on April 30th called Queen's Day (or Koninginnedag in Dutch) to celebrate the Queen's birthday. We'd heard stories from locals and other ex-pats, but this was our first one.

Here's a brief summary of what you can expect on a typical Queen's Day in Amsterdam:

It's the one day of the year where it's allowed to sell anything anywhere, so all of the locals are out selling any piece of junk they want to get rid of, meaning the streets are full of vendors and food and street musicians that may or may not be so good.

Everybody wears orange (the color of the royal family here) and tries to look as ridiculous as possible. You see plenty of orange-died hair, boas, and gigantic sunglasses (yes, I had some of these).

Locals and the one million plus tourists that flood the town for Queen's Day and Queen's night pack the streets and canals. The big thing is to be on a boat and spend the whole day cruising the canals blasting music and drinking beer while everybody else watches from the side of the canal.

It's pretty entertaining, and the people watching is amazing. But if you're worried you'll be claustrophobic this probably isn't the day for you!

To read more about Koninginnedag, check out this Wikipedia page.

Brian and I had a great time although we weren't able to get on a boat this year - next year!

Some pictures from the day below:

Brian dressed in orange eating orange Asian food

Orange sunglasses are a must

Prinsengracht, one of the most popular canals

Getting off our feet briefly to sit at an outdoor cafe

Boats packed the Amstel River

- Krista