Queen's Day a.k.a. Koninginnedag

Queen’s Day also known as Koninginnedag is a national holiday in the Netherlands. It is usually celebrated the 30th or 29th of April to celebrate the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands- Princess Wilhelmina (originally 31st of August 1885) and later Princess Juliana whose birthday is the 30th of April.

This day is known for it’s “free market” (Dutch for vrijmarkt) all over the country, which is basically like the entire nation holding one extremely enormous garage sales or flea market on all the streets while wearing orange ( Royalty of Orange- think of saying it as a French man- Orannngee…) and drinking incestuous amounts of beer and eating great dutch treats all day long. It usually starts the night before, called Queens Night, and follows through to the next day. You are likely to see the Dutch…all the Dutch wearing orange, including children, elderly and even dogs!

This year was great- My dad flew in from the US to join in on the festivities and Niels and his sister, a local, took us through the town- through the great neighborhood of Jordan. We bought all kinds of 2nd hand things like bags, shirts, hand painted Delft mugs and lots of English books that were on sale. Marjolein, my language exchange partner and her friend Astrid joined us there too. They say..one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. We definitely all found something there. It was a great time…and I think the Dutch riding on the boats- all wearing orange and drinking beer- also had a great time.
Tot ziens! ( Until I see you later (English), Tschuss (German), Hasta luego (Spanish)Any other languages…hmmmm- I’ll learn!)

Ohhh and check out this boat! GO QUEEN'S DAY!

Running in the oldest Dutch Marathon

So...this is me, running in the oldest Marathon in the Netherlands- the Enschede Marathon. The first race took place on Saturday July 12, 1947.

I decided I would take part in this when Eaton posted a request for runners...so I signed up for the 10K. I am not normally a long distance runner, normally I do just do 5K on a regular basis. So I decided to really train...umm...about 2 weeks before, I tried earlier but as most people know- you want to put it off, put it off and then when push comes to shove you do it. So I did and I did a time of 1:07:15. Not bad considering I trained for it two weeks before. Better than I expected myself to do.

Here is a picture of the team before- we were missing a few but- Henk Telman and Carolein Bouhuis were on my team- they were fast!

Here is a picture of me afterwards biting my gold (bronze) medallion. Thank goodness for my fellow running partner- Ronald- a fellow co-worker. We pushed each other through it. Overall- it was a fun time. Off to the next one!

Also- special thanks to Niels Keller and my dad- Papi for coming out to support me- I really appreciate it!