30th April marks the primary event on the Dutch social calendar; the birthday of the old queen (now-queen mother). The entire Dutch populus dons in orange -the national colour- and flocks to the streets of Amsterdam to eat, drink and be merry. The middle one in rather copious amounts. Koninginnedag, as it is rather laboriously said in Dutch, is also the only day of the year on which it is legal for anyONE to sell anyTHING, and thus the streets become like a crowded market with impromptu stalls set up in order to sell everything from old clothes and household items, to home-made crepes and other delicacies. Natania and I were feeling entrepreneurial and set up a vodka+lemonade stand, which after alot of hard labour and much sampling of our own product earnt us 100euros! The canals were almost solid with Amsterdammers cruising on thier boats- filled greatly beyond their capacity. The last photograph was taken at the conclusion of my day/night when the poor garbage men had the apocalypse to deal with. My personal favourite sight of the day though, were the young twins, decked out in orange from head to toe offering around shots to "toast the queen!". Now that's patriotism.
