Queen's Day in Amsterdam was sort of crazy - it was very crowded (almost impossible to move at all in some places), loud (there was lots of music everywhere - bands just playing on the street, large concerts in some areas of the city, and just about every boat that passed was blasting music) and everyone was walking around and drinking beer.
This stand has music on top and beer for sale on the bottom.
Everyone on these boats was drinking beer as well... On some of them, it wouldn't surprise me if the captains were also drinking beer since I saw several near accidents involving multiple boats - such as the picture below...
Note that the boat in the above picture actually has a portable toilet on it...
The park in Amsterdam was also filled with people selling stuff and music...
On Queen's Day, you are supposed to wear as much orange as possible. I found this nice orange belt for 50 cents and a friend lent me this silly hat. Some people were completely dressed in orange.
In the museum square, there was a huge area set up for concerts. We stayed here for a little while and heard some of the popular bands in The Netherlands, such as Nick & Simon and Racoon.
As you can imagine, walking through the crowds was very slow...
I tried "poffertjes" for the first time. Poffertjes are like little pancakes, cooked on this special grill. They are served with powdered sugar and a big pile of butter. They were good.
This boat had some problems fitting under the bridge... It took it a while, but eventually it managed to get through.
The train ride home was also very crowded and noisy - but I actually think it was better than the train ride in the morning (maybe everyone was tired by that point?).
A few weekends ago I went camping on Vlieland, the next island past Texel, since it was nice and sunny. These pictures are in random order since Blogger seems to be assembling them in an order different from the order I'm uploading them in...
When you arrive on Vlieland from Texel, this vehicle takes you across 8km of sand on the southern end of the island, which is used as a military testing range in the non-tourist season.
Bridge from the ferry landing at Vlieland to the yellow truck that takes you across the sand.
The village of Oost-Vlieland.
Yes, the place is actually called "Place to MEAT you"!!!
Random goat statue.
View of Oost Vlieland from the top of a tall dune.
Harbor in Oost Vlieland.
The tires of the yellow truck have a poem written in them - so when the truck drives across the sand it leaves a poem (in Dutch of course). Below is another photo of the poem in the sand.
Tourists arriving on Texel from Vlieland.
A hairy cow! Vlieland has them too! (But interestingly, I didn't see any sheep there...)
