Although everybody knew one day it would happen, it still came as quite a surprise. On Monday 28 January 2013 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands announced that she was to abdicate on 30 April 2013. Just after 5pm, I received the message that the Queen would hold a speech on television and that more information […]
The Hague, 21 September 1999 Prinsjesdag (Princes’s Day) is a centuries-old tradition and the only tradition with pomp and circumstance left in the Netherlands. Since 1904 it is held in the Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights) in The Hague. Since a long time, the day is on the third Tuesday of September. It marks the beginning […]
Last Thursday I saw Queen Beatrix in Sneek, a nice little town in the north of the Netherlands where I was born and raised. Only the day before, me and my mother had agreed to do some shopping in Sneek. Knowing the Queen would come, I took the first cheaper train out of town (Groningen) […]
Copyright: Bernard Rübsamen/Royal Portraits
Delft, 24 April 2004 Wedding programme 10.00: Departure by car from Noordeinde Palace. 10.30-11.00: civil marriage. The civil ceremony was conducted by the Mayor of Delft, Hein van Oorschot, in the Town Hall. It was attended by close family and friends of the bride and groom and dignitaries (some 50 guests). Departure by car from […]