the Last Queen's Day, Bye Queen B

Last Queen’s Day, Amsterdam 2013

LIZ SAYS: As it turns out, we just happened to be in our other favorite city, Amsterdam, when the Queen decided to quit and let her son wear the crown for awhile. In other words, Queen’s Day’s were coming to an end and Long live the King’s Day’s for the foreseeable future.
Last year’s Queen’s Day, my first, was a sloppy, orange colored, thump fest.
I don’t remember there being any formal royal ceremonies, it was just basically  a citrus colored version of high tourist season. 
The day started with televised smiles as the queen signed a giant red book. Everyone at the big table signed and smiled, meanwhile outside, the city had been generously peppered with orange everything, including dogs and people.
Besides the tendency to pair orange with red, white and blue, another interesting aspect Queen’s Day was that everyone tried to sell a combination of yard sale type goods and nonsense. 
Kids are out in the parks with their old toys and games on blankets selling them or a game of whack a wurst, whatever sells. 
We spent the afternoon wandering through the sweetness wearing our free HEMA (Dutch K Mart) crowns. I had the most wonderful little crispy pancake poofs made on a large cast iron griddle with tiny cups that made crisp pancakes about the size of a ravioli. The only thing close to this wonder is the first tiny sacrificial pancake you have to make to test the heat of the skillet. If its perfect, you get a tiny poof, crunchy and just a bit too hot but you pop it into your mouth before making the first big caker.
The game of the day was definitely Whack a Wurst or Whack a Weenie. The game consists of a tube or some tubes, a stick or hammer and a few hotdogs. Someone lets the weenie go down the tube and the player has to hit the weenie when it comes out the end. As if that wasn’t fun enough, there are white Scottie dogs painted orange with orange bandanas who would love to snap up the smashed weenie.
Some kids dress up as robots and hand you various candy balls or trinkets out of their multiple little windows. Don’t ask, I don’t know why robots have windows all over, maybe it has something to do with Dali. 
Anyway, its all very charming, I loved the little girl playing her cello in the park for tips, she seemed to be practicing. 
In the photos, the Queen has a Q above her head, the new King is K and his wife is the crown Princess, not the Queen. Humph. Princess for life. I wonder if that trumps being Queen?