Koninginnedag 2013

In a stroke of fortuitous timing, we happened to be in Holland for Koninginnedag. Koninginnedag is a public holiday for the Queens birthday and is marked across Holland with street parties and special markets. This year was extra special as the Queen had abdicated and on this day her son, Prince Willy would be crowned King!

We were in two minds about either staying local in Sloten or heading into the centre of Amsterdam to be part of the crowning festivities. Claudia and Guido advised against going into central Amsterdam as the crowning would just be a lot of waiting around for nothing. Also my father in law was warning us against the potential for a lone bomber (Boston style). With those two very good reasons we decided to stay local and enjoy the day with people we know.

The normal quiet Sloten was 'abuzz' with a street market, full of people selling their second hand goods, homemade food and also some street games. There was also some pedal go karts for the children and lots of people sitting in their gardens enjoying the street party.

Being the kind of small community that Sloten is, Claudia and Guido can't go two steps with someone they know stopping them and starting a conversation. This makes getting around quite a slow process.

After enjoying the street party for a while, we went back inside to watch the crowning ceremony on TV. This was very boring and from the shots of outside we were glad we hadn't bothered to go. The royals only made brief outside appearances and everything else took place inside a church.

We watched the ceremony for a couple of hours and the guy never even got crowned. What a rip!

With that anticlimactic ceremony we went out to enjoy phase two of the street party. In the evening the markets get cleared away and a few bands start playing and people start drinking.

We watched as a guy who had just bought a full tray of beers stumbled at the last step and spilt the whole lot. Out of concern for the man the whole crowd and all his friends laughed at him, made fun of him and then sent him back to get more.

As he came back for his second attempt, his thirsty mates formed an honour guard around him until he landed the fresh batch of  beers on the table. Relief all around.

This party continued on into the late night. We retired early and could hear it all for hours from our Town house. All these people had to go to work the next day...not us :)

Tuinhuis

The place we are staying in at the moment in Amsterdam is Claudia's little town house. This is located very close to her normal house, a few hundred metres away in a garden community thing. I do not know the full details of this place but I understand that in the past this used to be something of a summer 'out of the city' getaway for people who lived in small Amsterdam city centre apartments. Previously the plots would not have been available to anyone else, but now they are available on the open market...and now Claudia has this one since 2011.

The area where these town houses are is quite large, like a mini garden suburb. I don't know what they do with the places in winter but I assume the area is pretty much deserted. We have been told that people aren't allowed to stay her in winter so its purely a summer thing.

The garden community is very cute. Being spring everything is beautifully green and many flowers starting to bloom in peoples gardens. Each plot is similar in size and has varying quality of landscaping and structures. Most are like our shack, rustic, small, eclecticaly (sometimes eccentrically) decorated, some very sharp and neat and some a bit like a junk yard. All of that is within the confines of each owners plot.

Outside of the plots are beautiful stone paths, hedges, grass, small canals and some little arched bridges. There is a small car park outside of the community and you then need to walk the rest of the way so it is extra bizarre and olden timey in 'here'. It feels a bit strange to be staying in a place like this and a very welcome new experience for us. It feels like a nature retreat, upmarket camping.

Claudia and her husband have been preparing the town house for our arrival but didn't quite get it all done. It is super rustic but has most things like electricity, running water, basic kitchen and a toilet. Unfortunately they weren't able to get the shower finished in time for our arrival so we have to shower at Claudia's house.

Our first night in the town house was interesting. We came here as night fell. It was very cold, very dark and lots of strange nature noises. That and some booming aircraft noises from the Schipol airport. Serenity.

With no television or internet we had to amuse ourselves. We made a cup of tea on the gas camper cook stove thing and huddled for warmth. The sleeping area is in a small upstairs open loft. The ladder to get up there is steep and the steps are very thin. Hard for all of us to manage! Nordine a bit clumsy at times, me with a rotten back and Barney with no opposable digits.

Even though it was really really cold we were very comfortable once in bed. We had brought our sleeping bags with us and these were an absolute necessity. For once these things have come in handy. We took them all around the world and never used them in that trip.

 

Like any parents we were concerned about our little boy (the dog) falling off the loft bed if he was brought up with us. When we went to bed we left him 'downstairs' hoping that he would curl into some pillows and be happy. He wasn't.

As we tried to fall asleep all we could hear was Barney pacing and exploring the lower quarters. Either looking for somewhere warm or somewhere to pee, we felt guilty, comfortable in our warm sleeping bags while he was obviously in some distress. We tried to ignore him.

A few hours went by and he had tried to go to sleep (and so had we) but things got too much for him. At 4:20am he started to cry and we couldn't ignore him any more. We had to go down to check on him. Not easy when its cold, dark, and the stairs are steep as vertical and thick as match sticks!

The poor little thing was sitting downstairs shaking from cold. We felt a bit bad. He came up to the loft with us, passed from one to the other like firemen rescuing cats from a tree in reverse. We slipped back into our sleeping bags and Barney slumped in the middle of us, breathed a sigh of relief and fell asleep immediately. He was a happy warm little man, we were happy for the extra warmth and didn't feel guilty any more. I guess he will be sleeping up there with us for the rest of our stay!