Remembrance and Liberation Day

Friday May 4th was Remembrance Day in the Netherlands. There was a ceremony in Dam Square in front of the war memorial, which the Queen attended. It was marked with two minutes of silence at 8pm.



The Queen went out of the Royal Palance and walked accross Dam to the memorial. You can see the set up on the monitor.

The next day, Saturday May 5th, was Liberation Day. It was celebrated all over the city. Museumplein had the most festivities, with many stages with live music and various information booths about national organizations and charities. It was a cool contrast, rock music and the Rijksmuseum.

Museumplein was full of people that day...



Outside the national theatre, the Carre, a huge stage was set up on the Amstel for an evening concert. The Queen also attended the concert, and later floated around the river in her royal boat, waving to cheering fans. She's a cool lady. I was able to get this picture of the stage during soundcheck, when I went for a bike ride ride during the day...
because in the evening it was too packed.


The Queen leaving the Carre to go watch the concert. She's the little lady in black with the red robe; can you spot her?

The canals were a popular place to watch the concert from, it was a bit like Queen's Day again. And all the homes were draped in Dutch flags!

Queen's Day, Koninginnedag - April 30

On Queen's Night (April 29) Ewa and Giulia came back for Queen's Day, so it was a girls of Pad22 reunion!

The night before Queen's Day is Queen's Night, which is when the partying starts. People go to clubs that have special events in honor of the Queen (read: get drunk). The tradition started in the early 90s when pre-Koninginnedag riots were a problem in the Hague. How did the government deal with the rioters? Convince them that a party is a much better way to spend Queen's Night! It also became a national holiday.


Queen's Day is a celebration of the Queen's birthday. It started with Queen Wilhelmina, grandmother of the current Queen, on August 31. After 1948 Koninginnedag moved to April 30, Queen Juliana's Birthday. When her daughter, current Queen Beatrix, took the thrown she decided to keep the holiday on April 30th, because her birthday is on January 31, and it's too cold and rainy to party outside then.

The day is also known as the vrijmarkt (free market), the one day in the year when anyone can sell anything on the street. We saw everything from traditonal lemonade stands, to getting your picture taken with someones dog, to using people's toilets for a small fee.



Orange is the color for Queen's day, because the Royal family is the House of Orange. Even the Red Light District celebrated. The girls on the steps in the orange underwear are prostitutes.


Many people spend the day on a boat, it's really the place to be. This is the Amstel river, from which we boarded our boat. Behind me is the Muntplein (Mint Square).
We were lucky to be on a boat organized by the unviersity that day...


We partied and danced to crappy music, and even got stuck in a traffic jam under one of the bridges. Most people were getting drunk.
People were partying all over the streets and houseboats.


We bought our matching milkmaid hats in Keukenhof, and they were very popular during the day. We counted 7 people taking pictures of us. Towards the end of the day, a slightly larger group of people was taking what we thought was our picture. We thought we were a popular attraction, so we waved, posed and laughed. We didn't notice that beside us a guy was spewing off the side of our boat. I wish I could see the picture those people got. But because of these hats, everyone assumed we were Dutch. And because we were so cute, we were able to avoid the rush for paid toilets in crappy restaurants, and were let in to the fancy Krasnapolsky Hotel.


The boat made a few stops, so we got to spend some time on the crowded streets.


This was our Queen's Day schtick.

When we hit the Prinsengracht (Prince's Canal) there were more boats...


... and more...


... so we decided to go boat hopping. Earlier in the day we convinced a guy from a boat full of old people to jump on our boat. About half an hour later, he appeared on our boat again, and we hopped along to his. To get to his boat (the guy in the orange) I had to go over this one. The guy thought it would be really funny to grab me as I jumped across and pull me down on top of him. Haha, his floor broke under our weight. I took a quick rest on his couch, and hopped on.


Happy Queen's Day!

Anna and Corina do Amsterdam!

Once again, I had a Canadian visit me here on the other side of the ocean! And, as always, it was a blast! On our first day we were both tired, so we wandered around the city, and climbed up NEMO, a weird green building that looks like a ship, which houses an Ontario Science Center-like museum. From there, you can get a view of the city.



To fully incorporate Corina into Dutch society, we took a bike trip to Muiden, a town just outside of Amsterdam. Muiden is famous for the Muiderslot (Muiden Castle). The fortress was built in 1280 by Floris V, who was sympathetic to the poor, but also to the French; he was murdered in 1296. The castle is the first in Holland to have round towers, a French invention.





Muiden has a central lock that sends boats out into the IJsselmeer; many of the old VOC boats still sit here.


Back in Amsterdam we had lunch at Metz and Co, a restaurant on the 6th floor! This is pretty much as high up as you can get in Amsteram, which offered us another cool view of the city.



A guy I know has a small motor boat, and does private trips through the canals. We got 9 girls together and cruised through the canals for 3 hours, it was great. Here's Amsterdam's narrowest house next to Amsterdam's widest bridge. Can you spot it?




Marianna (Romania), me and Core in front of NEMO



The famous Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge)



We visited the Portugese Synagogue, built in the 17th Century and still active today. At that time, it was Europe's largest.



In the women's gallery; can you tell I'm not impressed?


We took another day trip out of Amsterdam, this time to the famous cheese market in Alkmaar. Alkmaar, in 1573, was the first Dutch town ot repel occupying Spanish troops. The locals opened the locks and flooded the area with sea water, forcing the invaders to retreat. The victory got the town weighing rights, which laid the foundations for the famous, traditional cheese market. The cheese market happenes every Friday morning during the spring and summer months in the square outside the Waag (weigh house).



Cheese is heavy.



Buyers look at the cheese, agree on a purchase, and then the men in colorful hats (each color represents a different guild) carry the cheese to the weigh house. It's funny to watch them run.






I even got weighed on the old scales. Cheesy tourist pic.


The rest of Alkmaar is a regular Dutch town, cute and small.



On our last day we went to the Bazaar, a cool Middle-Eastern restaurant located in an old church. Many churches in Amsterdam are no longer active.