Koninijnedag!

Or Queen's day in English. Words (and even images for that matter) do not do it justice. My best effort at describing this day of drunken, debaucherous nationalism is if you were to combine Anzac Day, New Year's eve and Australia Day into one day of celebration and then multiply it by 10. It is the one day that the Dutch really let themselves go and the fervent celebration is marked by a sea of orange, flea markets in the suburbs on street sidewalks and in parks and one huge party in the centre of Amsterdam with music on every corner, bars filled and then boats jostling with one another for position on the canals.

This year was our 3rd and every time we tell people who plan to visit us in Amsterdam - make sure it's the weekend of 30 April as that is when all hell breaks loose. This year it was Anna & Kristo Breheny joining James and we had a blast. Harm (our boat) was full to the breaches and towards the end of the day we had to offload people when water started to come precariously close to the edges.

If you plan to visit Amsterdam in the coming years - base your trip around April 30!