April 30th is Koninginnedag in the Netherlands, a national holiday. On this day the entire country celebrates the Queen’s birthday.

Queen Beatrix’s birthday is actually on January 31st and April 30th is the birthday of her mother Queen Juliana. However, as the weather is warmer in April, Queen Beatrix has kept April 30th as the official date.

Tulip Field

If you’re in the Netherlands during Koninginnedag celebrations, you’ll see orange everywhere – orange banners, people dressed in all kinds of orange gear and accessories and even orange coloured food and drinks. It’s oranjegekte or the “orange craze” a reference to the royal family and the House of Orange.

Another interesting sight on Koninginnedag is vrijmarkt or “freemarket”. On this one day people all over the country are allowed to sell things in the streets without having to pay taxes on their sales!  People may set up stalls or have their goods on blankets in the parks or on sidewalks. It’s not just the car boot sales or flea market sales that are exempt from tax, commercial traders benefit from this one day of tax-free sales.  Naturally, the amount of sales clocked up on this one day is huge.

All over the Netherlands there are parties, musical performances and concerts, including Koninginnenacht (Queen’s Night) and Koninginnedans (Queen’s Dance).

So if you’re thinking of having a city break in the Netherlands and you don’t mind the crowds, April 30th is an entertaining time to be there and you never know what you’ll find at some of these car boot sales!  And while you’re there, it’s a fabulous time to see the Netherlands’ famous spring gardens at the Keukenhof.

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The city of Amsterdam has unveiled grand plans to tackle its overcrowding, traffic problems and shear lack of space.  In spite of the bicycle being a main means of transport within the city, there is a huge shortage of parking permits and garage spaces, with city residents having to wait as long as seven years to get their entitlement.

Along both sides of Amsterdam’s famous waterways, the streets are feeling the strain of overcrowding, and traffic is frequently thrown into chaos for hours by delivery vans and rubbish collectors.

So what do you do when property prices are soaring, land is scarce and being an old city, there’s only so much you can do to change around the infrastructure?  Well, the city’s engineers have proposed plans to build an underground city, not just any underground city, but one that is under the canals.  This will apparently provide one million square feet of underground retail, leisure and parking facilities.

Amsterdam was originally built on drained, swampy marshland and many of the classic Dutch gabled houses along its canals are still precariously supported by underground wooden beams. As Amsterdam sits on a 30-metre layer of waterproof clay Dutch engineers believe it is easier to build in the clay under the canals.  Under the plans, canal water will be temporarily pumped out in order to start construction beneath.  Once the canal floor has been resealed, it will be possible to carry on working underneath while pouring water back into the canals.

One of the city’s aldermen expressed concerns that Amsterdammers would not want to “live like moles” underground.  The designers have already thought of solutions to make underground living pleasant, one example being the projection of images of the sky on to the ceilings.  I believe, if the end result is the beautification of the city by getting rid of unsightly carparks, and making traffic less hellish for everyday living, I’m sure the citizens of Amsterdam will come around to the idea.  When I first saw this bicycle station, it was a novel experience as I’d never seen so many bikes in one spot before, however you got to admit that it’s a visual pollution of the skyline.

And, if you’re planning on visiting Amsterdam in the near future and are worried about not being able to do your canal cruise, do not panic as construction is not expected to begin till 2018.

Helen

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