Our Garden

Also during the weekend we spent some relaxing time in our back garden - and have realized that we have *real* frogs in the pond that is fed by our concrete fountain, "Kermit". We have added a bit of our own flair to the garden, having added some phlox, geranium and fuschia among others.

A day at the beach

On Saturday we had a relaxing day of 'no errands' and decided to take advantage of the (still) beautiful weather and cycle to the beach for lunch. Here are some of the images I captured:

Koninginnenacht in den Haag

Koninginnedag is Queen's Day...We'd heard lots about Queen's Day and as the date drew near we were told that we *had* to experience the Hague on Koninginnenacht, or Queen's Night. See more below. The largest celebration of Queen's night in the country is in the Hague (and the largest Queen's Day in Amsterdam).

Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands (on the 30th of April or on the 29th if the 30th is a Sunday). Queen's Day celebrates the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands and is celebrated as a national day of unity.

Queen's Day is known for its "freemarket" all over the country, where everybody is allowed to sell things in the streets (this happens on the actual day). I will note -- this means everyone is selling their own stuff - much like the biggest yard sale you have ever imagined (Queen's Night was much more our 'thang'). Other activities during Queen's Day are children's games, individual musical performances, and music concerts.

The night before Queen's Day is celebrated too in some cities, and this is called Queen's Night During the celebrations as reference to the colours of the House of Orange-Nassau, , people dress in the colour orange, which is sometimes called "orange craze" (Dutch: oranjegekte).

These pics and videos give one a good idea of what we experienced. There were over 220,000 people in the Hague last Tuesday night - that's a HUGE party. There is live music and there are beer and worst vendors aplenty, as well as a carnival spread throughout a large area of the city.

People stream in on the public transit system as the streets are actually closed for the evening (we took the bus from Wassenaar). Inside and outside people are celebrating through the night.

You'll see in one photo this sort of 'pyramid' - a tall molded plastic unit with four 'booths' - these are placed throughout the city as urinals for the men. (Yes, I know this is nice -- but all part of the experience!) The women, unfortunately, are not really accommodated and so we found ourselves slipping inside some pubs so I could use the loo (which, incidentally, you must pay for - could be 20 cents, could be €1 -- I've learned always to carry change :)

Enjoy.


This video shows that it was time for us to go home :)