After two years alternative King’s Day celebrations, it is finally possible to celebrate again. No mask, no distance … ten thousands of people all over the Netherlands are celebrating the same way as before 2020. The royal family will be present in Maastricht, in the province of Limburg in the south of the Netherlands. As […]
The opening of the Frida Kahlo exhibition in the afternoon of 7 October in Assen by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands would surely have been a more exciting engagement. But with a busy weekend coming, I decided not to go. In the early morning King Willem-Alexander also travelled north, and as the Martini Church in […]
A long time ago the Bobstart and Skeleton World Championships was being held in the city centre of Groningen a few times. At the time the Netherlands had quite a good bobsleigh team, with Arend Glas from Groningen, who was one of the organizers of the event. Unfortunately the event was always held in one […]
It had been quite a while since I saw one of the royals. I had to think! April 2018 King’s Day in Groningen, Princess Laurentien in May 2018 and a visit of King Willem-Alexander to the Groninger Museum and the A-Church in Groningen in June 2018, and the sighting of the three Cambridge kids in […]
For the first time in years the Netherlands was covered with snow last week. And there was even ice, so lots of people went ice skating outside. Not me, but it wasn’t so bad in the Netherlands that you couldn’t walk. So that is what I did a few times. The world looks beautiful in […]
My British royalty-friend Bobby Golden lately sent me a small article about a “royal” visit to my city Groningen in January 1937. A day after the wedding of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard in The Hague Major and Lady May Abel Smith headed for Groningen on a mission connected to another big event that year. […]
Finally continued my tour of the Groninger borgen. After the Allersmaborg I had a look at the Piloersemaborg or Hamsterborg in the tiny village of Den Ham. Another place that was reachable by bike from Groningen. History The first time the borg is mentioned was in 1521 when it was a farm of the Jensema […]
The first castle stop in “lockdown” on 31 May 2020 took me to the Allersmaborg between Ezinge and Aduarderzijl, The Netherlands. It is situated about 18 kilometres from the city in Groningen, where I live. For a rather inexperienced cyclist like me it was quite a distance, but the weather was lovely, so there I […]
You expect that a royal wedding, especially in a reigning royal family, takes place in a big church. However Zara Phillips in 2011 choose a rather modest sized and simple church: Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh. Situated at the Royal Mile, not far from the Holyroodhouse Palace, it is the official place of worship for the […]
Few hotels have ever been a royal residence or the residence of a King’s mistress. The ones you can stay in are often quite expensive, but they don’t have to be, and they can be very nice to stay in if you’re travelling. I am certain there are more than I listed here, but these […]
