Koninginnedag in Rotterdam 2010

On 30 April every year is Koninginnedag, Queen's Day, which means it's the Queen's birthday, but which is actually the current queen's mother's birthday, which is a national holiday... yippee!

I'm such an awesome and clear writer.

Here's an easy copy-and-paste version from Wikipedia:

When Queen Beatrix succeeded her mother Queen Juliana on 30 April 1980, she decided to keep the holiday on 30 April as a tribute to her mother. Furthermore for practical reasons, the weather on her own birthday in the winter on 31 January tends to prohibit the traditional outdoor festivities, while 30 April normally has better weather.

So practical, so Dutch.

The streets and houses are covered in orange flags, cloths, hats, crowns, cakes... I even saw crown-shaped chicken nuggets in the supermarket.

It's a day when anyone can set up a stall on the street and sell their old junk (I was tempted to buy some old Russian army medals from one stall where this Russian guy and his 2 exotic-ly pretty young daughters were selling other Russian army stuff like uniforms, medals, photos and cards). Apparently, it's not a good time to let your children loose with loose change, as they will miraculously come back with arms full of other people's crap, which you'll have to sell next year.

Schrobbenmaster and I ventured out to have a look at the festivities on this day.

Orange cowboy hats...

Yummy fresh strawberries!

More ballooooooooons!

Many street corners and open areas were taken up by these South American/Peruvian/Native Americans playing their pan flutes. This group was the only one I saw which actually dressed up for the part.

Orange shirts, caps and scarfs.

Orange hair...

A bunch of modern-day hippies with music.

And the kind of modern-day hippie I like better - actual cool, arty people. At least I assume they are, since they're standing in front of a cool burger place and a modern art gallery.

Hope you enjoyed a little Dutch culture in this post today!