King's Day- Managed Anarchy

Wednesday night, 23:03 (11:03pm; 5:03pm EST). The city trash trucks are in full swing. King's Day went out with nary a whimper. It just sort of faded out to the distant beeps of a large vehicle backing up.

For the uninitiated, earlier in the day it was orange anarchy in the streets. People everywhere; on the main streets, at neighborhood corners, at canal bridges, in front of apartments and shops, dancing to DJs and live music, checking out all kinds of stuff for sale on the street. Drinking, oh, the drinking.

One could juxtapose this with say the Starkville, MS Cotton District Spring Arts Festival, wherein you have the East/West/South Stages, the Beer area, food vendors, and the Arts and Crafts booths. Thats pretty much it.

There, you are more of an observer going from event to event. Here, everyone is participating and there is no clear separation between 'events'. You just flow from a music venue at an intersection with hundreds of people, past beer, wine and food vendors, past sidewalk sales of all kinds (Kings Day is also national yardsale day), past the chair in the middle of a street with a sign that says "Applause, 50 cents", past the fully decked out in orange guys with the leaf blowers, to the lady selling coffee and pastries from her open apartment window.

All this activity seems spontaneous, random and chaotic. Yet there is an underlying order. After all, Amsterdam is known for its large and efficient bureaucracy. 

Walking across a canal bridge you notice the barge that has blocked off a side canal so boats are forced down another canal, the one with continuous 'bumpers' on both sides to protect the houseboats from the crazy, drunken boaters. You notice the large number of portable 'open air' urinals, which I have learned are collecting all that pee to be recycled. You notice a lot of city employees from various divisions- police, traffic and transportation, waste, street patrol, bridges, waternet, etc- keeping an eye on things.

But its party on, at least until some predetermined time (by the aforementioned City) where everything starts to close down. By 21:00 (9:00pm) the loud music from various sources pretty much stops. By 22:00 street noise returns to its usual Wednesday evening level (people walking by, occasional bike or scooter). By 23:00 the trash trucks move in shortly followed by the vacuum and street sweeper vehicles. By midnight, its all gone.

Our brief sojourn was just through our local neighborhood. Multiply this craziness by hundreds of streets and neighborhoods throughout the city. And I can't imagine what was going on in the Red Light district. Multiply again by towns and cities across the Netherlands. National craziness! Our Fourth of July pales in comparison.

Netherlands- party and urine central

Yep, its Kings Day tomorrow, and the locals and tourists are already getting warmed up. The fact that it is 42 degrees and raining probably will not 'dampen' the revelry very much. Got the very crowded and loud bar around the corner, and across the canal somewhere is a live band. There is no escaping the sounds that are bouncing off the 17th century buildings......craziness.

stay tuned for some KD reports.

.....when up 1.5 million ale-fuelled revellers take to the streets and canals of Amsterdam on Wednesday for the city’s annual King’s Day celebrations, the local water board does not intend to let all that resulting pee go to waste.

kings-day-take-a-wee

on the home front

The Dutch Prime Minister says he’s “surprised” and will ask Ankara for clarification following allegations that the Turkish consulate in the Netherlands sent a plea to Turks living in the country to report people insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
netherlands vs. erdogan

Here comes the Sun

Juggle this

Its not Monday and 'baked' is something you do with 'potatoes' or 'bread'. 

Today we look at jugglers. By now I am sure you remember the weird specialty stores here in Amsterdam- the Cow Store/Museum, the Toothbrush Shop, the Duck Store, the Naked Butt Emporium (alright, just kidding). 

The Juggle Store caters to all the needs of jugglers here in Amsterdam, although I have never seen an actual juggler, not even in the Red Light district where you would assume they would be juggling. Never-the-less, all your juggling needs are supposedly inside the store. I can't recall ever having a juggling need. The flying bowling pins, flaming torches, and kittens all seem pretty dangerous to me.....

 

Shoulda' been smokin' weed

The evacuation of the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has been prompted by a homeless Polish citizen, who claimed to be a terrorist, Dutch military police said on Wednesday. Heavily armed military police had to evacuate and search through the commercial area of the Schiphol airport late on Tuesday, when the alarm was raised. They detained “a 25-year-old Polish man without fixed address... who told officers he was a terrorist.” Police claim the young man was “under the influence of alcohol.” His name was not disclosed. His two backpacks were searched, but no dangerous substances were found. The Dutch prosecutor's office is to decide what charges are to be brought against the unnamed perpetrator.

Lawn care!

Yes, they do have lawn care in Amsterdam even though as far as I can tell nobody has a lawn. Its not stopping these guys however.

I haven't seen any leaf-blowers yet. Surely Amsterdammers are too sophisticated for that.....here's a typical leaf-blower in America!

Leiden

Leiden is just down the road (or tracks) from Amsterdam, maybe 25 miles. Distances in the Netherlands seem weirdly expanded, or, my mind is compressed. Leiden feels like it is far away, kind of like the distance between Starkville and Birmingham, or Tampa and Miami.
  

The municipality of Leiden has a population of 122,565, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs, with around 190,000 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Old Rhine. It is 12 miles from The Hague to its south. A university city since 1575, Leiden houses Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands and Leiden University Medical Center.

Leiden actually has a castle built around 1150ad on top of an artificial hill. In the 1500's the  outer wall- its shape instantly recognizable- was constructed.  

The old town within the walls is much smaller than central Amsterdam and is less dense and has a slower pace. In other words, little danger from bikes, scooters, trams and buses. 

weather

Amsterdam weather continues to amaze and befuddle. Last Sunday was gorgeous; sunny, light breeze, 68 degrees. Everybody was out and about or parked in a south facing chair outside their apartment building (a common sight). Things were looking good. Birds were chirping. Buds were buddin'. Green stuff greening. One could have thought, "ah, at last Spring is here."

Wrong.

Back to cloudy, intermittent rain, 48 degrees, 30 mph wind.

Ukraine bad; Netherlands good

The majority of Dutch people who went to the polls in the Netherlands on Wednesday to express their opinion on the proposed association agreement between the EU and Kiev have rejected it, an exit poll has shown. Sixty-one percent voted against the Netherlands ratifying the treaty, which would strengthen economic and political ties between the 28-nation bloc and Kiev, an exit poll conducted by the Ipsos center shows. Some 38 percent of the voters supported the move, the exit poll has shown.
dutch-referendum