April 30th:2008: Koninginnedag 1 (Texel)

April 30th was Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day, which is one of the biggest Dutch holidays of the year. Queen's Day is a celebration of the queen's birthday - for more information you can check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninginnedag

My Queen's Day started at around 6am, when I was woken up by what sounded like 30 kids running down the street and screaming... At 8am it sounded like there was a brass band playing inside of the house. It took me a few minutes to figure out where the music was coming from - and then I spotted the band playing from the top of the church tower.A big part of Queen's day is the markets - basically, everyone claims a spot on the street and then attempts to sell their old stuff. I didn't get a good explanation from my Dutch friends for what the markets have to do with the queen's birthday - but it is tradition.


The photo above is of people selling their stuff in the streets of Den Burg. Also, a main part of Queen's day seems to be to drink as much beer as possible. Even at 8am I saw people walking around and drinking beer! At around 10am, I was on the train to Amsterdam - and I think I was the only sober person in my section of the train. The train ride was very loud and crazy - and there was a lot of beer drinking!
I spent the day in Amsterdam, and then returned to the island for the bonfires in the evening, which are a tradition on Texel. As the ferry approached the island, the smoke from fires all over the island was visible, as well as the fire from t' Horntje (the small village located next to the ferry).
The picture above was taken the day before Queen's day - notice the pile of wood behind the van. People dropped off their extra wood for the bonfire (basically, everything from tree branches to old chairs, tables and doors). I missed the lighting of the bonfire - but it was still huge when I got there. I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was still smoking today...
All around the big bonfire, there were probably 50-75 smaller fires - and people were cooking and drinking beer around the smaller fires. The kids come up to you and rub soot on your face - another tradition here.