Night At the Fun Fair

Had lots of fun at the Kermis night festival. I only tried two rides out of tons of them there, since I'm stil fasting. The playground was held at Malieveld, one of the big open field in Den Haag, from 12-20 September

Prince's Day 2009

Yesterday I went to Noordeinde Palace, to see the royal march for the Prince's Day. Every third Tuesday of September in Netherlands, there's Prince’s Day or Prinsjesdag. It is marked as the opening of Dutch parliament. A festive day, children in The Hague (including Alya) are free from school so they might watch the procession of the Gouden Koets, or Golden Coach, in which the Queen is driven from her palace on the Noordeinde to the Ridderzaal, or Hall of Knights, in the Binnenhof, the houses of Dutch Parliament. Here she reads the ‘Speech from the Throne’, written jointly by the Ministers and Secretaries of State, outlining the government’s plans for the coming year. As the procession returns to the Noordeinde Palace, the road is lined by members of the Dutch Royal Armed Forces, and in the afternoon the Royal Family appear on the palace balcony to address an adoring and often frenzied public. (Taken from denhaag.com)

The family burst to Noordeinde Palace, which is a few tram stop away, and found that we're late for the first procession, and just caught the golden coach, for the balcony appearance.





the golden coach guard looks similar to the Keraton Soldiers in Jogjakarta don't you think? I tried to google the picture, but this is the closest thing that came up. I'm sure there's more similar outfit like the one in Netherlands... (keraton soldier picture taken from www.ladangkata.com)










The People