Royalty

A royal impression

On the one hand it was a relief not to be living in the Netherlands the past few months, because I think it would have been awful with all the royalty stuff going on and everything slowly turning orange. On the other hand it was quite a shame not to be living there, since the event that was happening is very likely not happening again any time soon, so it was a shame to miss it. Even if Norwegian tv covered quite a bit as well!

Dutch me in Norwegian surroundings

What I am talking about? Well, you know about Queen's Day don't you. The national holiday in the Netherlands where we celebrate our Queen's birthday (which is actually on January 31st, but it's a tad cold then). But this year it was going to be different. In stead of her and her family making the trek to one or two villages/towns/cities in the Netherlands, she had decided she had had enough. She was going to abdicate. Which by the way is not unusual in the Netherlands. Her mother and grandmother had done the same. 

Because she was going to abdicate, her eldest child would automatically become the next reigning monarch. In this case her oldest child is male (as are her other 2 children by the way), so we would get a king. And it would all happen on April 30th. Queen's Day. 

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima, Princess Beatrix
Princess Alexia, Crown-Princess Amalia, Princess Ariane

I live in Norway, but I felt that I shouldn't let that hinder me in showing my respect for the Royal family and yesterday I turned up at work in my uniform and my fantastic orange hat. I got congratulated on 'our' new king, I got questioning looks and it was great fun. 

And now we have a king. The first in over 120 years. But as you can see from the photo of the royal family, the next monarch will be a queen again! Next year we will not have a Queen's Day. Next year we will have a King's Day. On a different day as well, because King Willem-Alexander's birthday is April 27th.

Long live the King!