The Queens Birthday

In the Netherlands the Queens Birthday is celebrated on 'Koninginnendag'. This is not only celebrated in the Netherlands, but also by the Dutch communities abroad and oversees. I had the pleasure of attending the Queen's Birthday celebration 2006 in Ohio organised by the Netherlands Ohio Chamber of Commerce. For more info on 'Koninginnendag', please visit the Holland Ring site on Koninginnedag.

It was a fun evening with familiar food and drinks. Eventough Heineken is available pretty much everywhere, other Dutch delights such as Bami Pangang and Kroketten are more rare in the States than a native American in downtown Manhattan. Funny, when we left that place to the Britsh there were plenty of them... Ah well, back to the party.

After the food and drinks we had the pleasure of singing both the American and Dutch national anthem to kick-off the musical part of the evening with two bands and a DJ. The bands were from Ohio and ... Bavaria. Interesting, a German band on a party for the Dutch Queen. Well, the bands were great. Especially the one from Bavaria.

The DJ was an American from the Akron/Canton-region who studied in Groningen for two years so was able to speak and understand Dutch and, more importantly, had a whole range of Dutch music to choose from. Which we did with pleasure until the whee morning hours.

Hip Hip Hurray for the Queen !!