Prambanan Temple, Yogyakarta. Photo from Pixabay.
On 9 March 2020 King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands arrived in Indonesia for a state visit, that will end on 13 March 2020. Because of the colonial past – Indonesia was once a Dutch colony – the visit will be a sensitive one with some tensions. That wasn’t different in 1995 when […]
For the elder generations of Dutch people Palace Soestdijk is remembered best because of the Queen’s Day celebrations during the reign of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Between 1949 and 1979 the Queen and her ever growing family stood on the steps on the palace, while Dutch people passed them in a long procession that […]
© RVD/Jeroen van der Meyde
It was a cold and stormy day. On Monday 31 January 1938, after waiting for many days, the first child of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was born, just over a year after their marriage. The official communiqué said: HRH Princess Juliana today, the 31st of January 1938 in the morning at […]
On 4 October 2017 at the Spoorwegmuseum (Railway Museum) in Utrecht, The Netherlands, the exhibition “Vorstelijk Reizen” (Travelling in Royal Style) opened its doors. It is not clear to me how long it will be there, although some places say 2025. Pieces from the collection of the museum show the long history of royals travelling […]
Late October 2016 the book “Juliana, vorstin in een mannenwereld” (Juliana, Queen in a men’s world) by the Dutch writer and sociologist Jolande Withuis was published by publisher De Bezige Bij. As the book received lots of publicity, also my foreign visitors were rather interested in hearing a bit more about the book. Although the […]
Princess Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Princess van Oranje-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg was born at 6:50 in the morning at Palace Noordeinde in The Hague on April 30, 1909. The little princess was named after her ancestor Countess Juliana zu Stolberg (1506-1580), mother of Prince Willem of Orange. Juliana was the only […]
