Queens Day
by JFC AdminApril 30th is Queens Day in The Netherlands, a time when Amsterdam turns in to one large street party. The past few years I have been in Amsterdam around the time of Queens Day but with flight connections it was impossible to spend the whole day in Amsterdam this time.
The flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam was the lunchtime of 30th April, the flight was a typical KLM 737 short flight. The crew did come round with chocolates to celebrate the day but that was all. Upon arrival at Schiphol I decided to catch a few hours of Queens Day and had time for a few drinks. It’s good to know that the staff of Cafe Karpershoek remember me, I’ve always visited their bar since my first trip to Amsterdam in 2004. During 2005 I became a regular there on monthly trips to Amsterdam (in 2005 I had not yet earned the Gold Elite status that was to get me free entry to the lounges – so on long connections a quick trip in to Amsterdam was in order) in 2006 and 2007 I’d only be in Amsterdam about 3 times a year but the staff there still remember me.
As usual Amsterdam was buzzing, the city centre full of people celebrating the Queen mother’s birthday. If only we had something like that perhaps the British Royal Family would be more popular, or perhaps the Mayor could launch ‘Kens Day’.
The reason why I chose Copenhagen instead of Amsterdam this year was because of delays organising time off from work. By the time it came to booking all my preferred hotels were booked out and the rest had vastly inflated prices. The advice for Queens Day goes – book your hotel early. Many Dutch people travel to Amsterdam for this event so there’s a very high demand for accommodation. I did enjoy Copenhagen but was very disappointed that I had to miss most of Queens Day.