Thursday was an IES excursion to see the Keukenhof. The Keukenhof is the Netherlands famous Tulip gardens outside of Amsterdam. There were thousands upon thousands of Tulips of all different varieties, shapes, sizes, and colors. It was pretty spectacular. The weather wasn't great for most of the afternoon, but the gardens were beautiful none the less.
Friday night was the beginning of celebrations for Koninginnendag (Queen's Day). Queen's Day is the day the Dutch celebrate the House of Orange (the Dutch monarchy). For 24 hours the city turns into one massive open air party with outdoor concerts and DJ's spread throughout the city. Over 800,000 people come to Amsterdam to celebrate Queen's Day from all over the Netherlands, making it the largest outdoor party in Europe. After a delicious dinner with Kelly's family (who were here visiting), Kelly and I headed to Rembrandtplein to check out the festivities. It was true craziness. Rembrandtplein was almost unrecognizable due to the number of people roaming the streets and all the stages set up. We found a great funk band to watch for a while, then headed back to Funen in order to rest up for the actual Queen's Day.
While Queen's Night was pretty crazy, Queen's Day was insane. The whole innercity was a pedestrian only zone. A tradition on Queen's Day is for residents to claim spots on the sidewalks and in the parks to sell just about whatever they want; clothes, shoes, toys, food (as long as it doesn't have dairy or meat), drinks (as long as they aren't alcoholic), crafts etc. It is kind of like an enormous city wide garage sale. We started our day around the Museumplein where the biggest open air concert is held, then slowly made our way to Prinsengracht to watch the boat parade. Essentially the canal becomes clogged with boats of all sizes and people partying on the boats. A lot of boats had their own personal DJ's on board blasting music for the people standing along the sides of the canal to dance to. After a while of watching this Kelly and I met up with her sister and boyfriend and wandered through the insanity some more. We ended our day back at the Museumplein to watch Armin van Buuren finish the day off with an awesome set before walking home.
The Funen crew waiting for the tram.
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