Queen`s Day , Amsterdam/The Netherlands 2010

                    CODE:F-Queens

Where: Amsterdam , The Netherlands  When : April 30, unless this falls on a Sunday in which case April 29  How Long : 1 Day

Queen's Day festivities began before the World War II with the celebration of birthday of Queen Wilhelmina on August 31 and since 1949, celebration of the birthday of her daughter and successor on the Dutch throne Queen Juliana, on April 30.

When Queen Beatrix succeeded Juliana in 1980, she decided to keep the Queen's Day on April 30. Her own birthday is in the middle of winter (January 31), so celebrating it outside would be difficult. Until today, many especially older people call the holiday the Queen's Birthday.

There is a rule that if the day of April 30 falls on the day free of work, the Queen's Day is celebrated on the day before. Coming years Queen's Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 and Thursday, April 30, 2009.

The Queen meets people
Traditionally, on this day the Queen visits one of the cities in the country, and meets celebrating people. Television reports live on these meetings during the day.

Dressing in Orange
Celebrating Queen's Day means dressing in orange clothes (as the reigning dynasty is House of Orange and this is their color), painting faces and hair orange, drinking drinks tinted in this color (or just natural orange juice), wearing mock orange crowns, dressing as the queen and making jokes at the royal family. As some of the jokes may seem to you slightly inappropriate, they express deep attachment Dutch people have to their Royal Family, which seen in the Netherlands as the symbol of national unity.

Tips for Tourists

A canal full of Orange-clad Queen's Day revelers. Each year, more and more tourists visit Amsterdam specifically to join the Queen's Day celebrations. And each year, countless others tourists - unaware of the Queen's Day festivities - get stuck when trying to travel between Schiphol airport and their downtown hotels.

Here's what you need to know:

• During most of the day (April 30th) there is no public transport in the center of Amsterdam. You'll have to walk, but due to the crowds thronging the streets, a walk that would normally take 10 minutes may now take 1 hour or more.
• If you need to travel between the city and Schiphol Airport, take Connexxion bus 258 or 370 (to and from the Marnixstraat Bus Station)
• The luggage lockers at Amsterdam Central Station and at Amsterdam Amstel Station will be closed between Sunday, Apr. 29 at 19:00 (7 PM) and Tuesday, May 1 at 7:00 (7 AM) for security reasons.
• Pickpockets will likely be wearing orange - like just about everyone else. Be alert. At the very least, use a money belt.  
• Queen's Day is the annual Dutch national holiday in honor of the late Queen Juliana's birthday.
• On Queen's Day there are celebrations throughout the Netherlands. However, the most popular destination is Amsterdam where up to one million visitors join the 750.000 locals in the world's largest street party.
• Queen Beatrix, who succeeded her mother in 1980, decided to keep the holiday on April 30 as the weather on her own birthday, January 31, tends to prohibit outdoor festivities.

The Night Before Queen's Day

• Queen's Day festivities start around midnight and last throughout the night (though official rules state that pubs must close for an hour or so before sunrise). Simply walk around in downtown Amsterdam (the Jordaan and Nieuwmarkt areas being among the most popular spots) and you'll find plenty of partying going on.
• That said, our advice is that you pace yourself. You'll want to be more or less sober for the main feast.

Queen's Day Proper

• 6:00 AM marks the start of the ‘free market' - a street market where half the population sells their bric-a-brac, used clothes, and crafts for next to nothing. Where? Everywhere people live. What? Well, you'll find anything from broken toys, last year's Queen's Day purchases, and used bras to fantastic bargains on musical instruments, electronics, software and everything else under the sun.
• Throughout the city, professional street performers vie for attention. There are pick-up bands, aspiring opera singers, teenage rappers and street discos. Rio-style drum bands have been very popular the past few years.
• Huge outdoor concerts are organized at various locations, such as Dam square and Museumplein.

Orange

• The throngs lining the streets and canals wear orange, the national color (after all, the Queen hails from the House of Orange). Take ‘throngs' literally - particularly in the city's center where you'll be shoulder to shoulder with other revelers. By way of indication: you can normally saunter from Central Station to Dam Square in about 7 minutes. On Queen's Day the same distance will take you at least an hour.
• For most of the day, there is no public transport in the center of town.
• If the weather is good (which isn't always the case) the canals offer little relief as thousands of boats, large and small, filled with party goers clog the city's waterways.
• The beer flows freely, though mostly in the form of reduced-alcohol ‘event beer,' which is served in plastic containers that come with a deposit fee.
• At all trains stations, trams and buses maps will handed out showing suggested walking routes - although as always we wonder whether anyone has ever completed the traject. There's just way too much to see and do along the way.
• If you are coming to Amsterdam from out of town, take the train.

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