Koninginnedag Rommelmarkt

Oranjetompouce/poes (Albert Hein spelled it the first way, my dictionary the second) is a treat for the day being it's orange. It's a bit like a thick eclair that's square with an icing on top. Most often you see it in pink and can see it at birthday's. But all the stores had orange for Queen's Day.



April 30 is Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) in Netherlands. It is a feest (party) day when the royal family visits typically a small town and a larger city. Here they walk the streets and/or through a park and/or on a boat. The idea is that they shake hands with people and participate in normal party life with the community. It begins with the royal family arriving and all the females in the royal family are given a bunch of flowers by 6-9ish year girls chosen from the community. Along the way some people give gifts to the family which can be a bunch of flowers, a letter or drawing from a child, to something like a small painting someone has painted for them. Old and new games are played. Like this year there was hitting a golf ball and trying to get it in the hole of a golf mound that was floating in the water, one prince accomplished that. Then there was another activity, not sure what it's called, but bikes are attached some how to a pole and as you pedal, the bike goes up and the first person to the top wins, so you have to pedal hard, again another prince was very adapt at this. One prince races cars so they had a race car there and had contests as to who could put the new tires onto the car. Apeldoorn, where Queen's Day was held this year, has the nation's champion volleyball team so volleyball was played as the family went through the park. You typically see people dressed in the area's traditional clothing, which doesn't all look like the pictures most of us grew up seeing, old vehicles, bikes, and other interesting items from days past. It's a good learning experience.


Then this year the terrible accident happened that ended killing seven people. There are six people of ten wounded still in the hospital, two are children and only one woman remains in serious condition. Today it was announced that Queen's Day will continue as it has for the past 30 years. I'm sure there will be more security measures in place, like for the remembrance service last night in Amsterdam, they placed police vehicles blocking all road entrances possible into the area, and extended that area. In this announcement they stressed that is is very important for the royal family to remain visible to the people and interact with the people, saying this royal family is the most visible with it's people.

Besides what the royal family does, most of the country isn't there so they have their own party. It begins with the rommelmarkt flea market. In Netherlands it is illegal for people to have garage or yard sales, and I don't think you can openly have that sort of sale inside your house either, except for one day and that is April 30th. Some places people just lay a blanket in front of their house and sell their junk, which most of it is. In larger cities it's more organized with the marking off a street for everyone to claim a spot to sell. Actually in Utrecht this event happens the night before, a night where there can be other parties, mostly for young people. There's typically Queen's Day celebrations orgainized in cities with rides for kids and big music festivals and fire works. With the tragedy this year, most of these bigger events were called off or scaled why down. (Rumor was that Rotterdam was going to do it's fireworks tonight, Liberation/ Freedom Day, but it's rainy and very windy so it may get postponed till yet another date.)


Right near us here on "Boulevard Zuid"--Beijerlandselaan that turns into Groenhilledijk--which stores line, is the designated rommelmarkt, along with a more typical type street event that happens about four times a year. They reroute the tram so it doesn't go down the street, block off the street, and vendors buy tables to sell their goods/food, as well as stores along the way had sale merchandise/things they're trying to get rid of, out on the sidewalk for sale as well. There were a couple carnival rides and pony rides for children. I made my way down there in the afternoon and got these pictures, most of which I call "What do you see in this picture you could have had?" They also do a great job of showing the ethnicity that makes up the area.















In front of McDonald's





People were making and selling food or, like this man, BBQing food for family or friends.


Pony rides on the tram tracks

These guys, with a couple gals, were seen in Rotterdam Centraal station the day before Queen's Day on their way to the night's celebration in the city.