Princess Amalia speaks on a well-attended King’s Day about her time in Spain, Maxima’s clothing being the main topic of conversation

King Willem-Alexander’s birthday was celebrated this year in Emmen, in the southeast of the Dutch province of Drenthe. The family arrived in the morning and was complete today. All three princesses – Amalia, Alexia and Ariane – were present, which was not the case last year.

Then Alexia was not there due to exams at her school in Wales. This year it was a question whether Ariane would be there, she is at school in Italy. Prince Constantijn, Princess Laurentien, Prince Floris and Prince Pieter-Christiaan, among others, were also at the celebration. Older family members such as Princess Beatrix and Princess Margriet have not been there for years.

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(Read more below the photos)

Walk

King Willem-Alexander and his family were accompanied by a platoon of cyclists to the starting point of the walk on Saturday morning: Noorderplein. Hundreds of people crowded along the route to catch a glimpse of the royal family or to shake hands with Willem-Alexander. For the first time in more than twenty years, the Oranjes celebrated King’s Day in Drenthe. The last time was in 2002: Queen Beatrix visited Meppel and Hoogeveen on April 30. Beatrix often chose two different places on Queen’s Day, usually in the same province.

Later in the day, Dutch King Willem-Alexander said he was happy that he was celebrating King’s Day again this year with his entire family. “To be able to celebrate your birthday with your own family is of course the most beautiful thing you can experience,” said the king. “I’m glad everyone is back.”

Amalia

In Emmen, Crown Princess Amalia also looked back on her study year in Spain. There she found “more freedom” than was possible in the Netherlands. Amalia lived and studied in Madrid for a year because of threats in the Netherlands. The news broke earlier this month. In the meantime, the princess lives again in the Netherlands. The time in Spain has made “life here somewhat possible again,” says Amalia. “I’m happy to be back.”

Queen Máxima said on Saturday that Amalia is an “independent girl and very smart”, “so she can handle it very well”. The queen granted her daughter “the freedom and wings that you must give a child to develop itself.” However, there were “tears and a smile” at every departure.

Butterfly headdress

There is a lot to say about the queen’s outfit in the Netherlands. Particularly her striking head decoration, which in the distance looked a lot like a hedera/ivy bush, but in reality consisted of a diadem with butterflies. Something that had been thought about, because the link was thus made with the butterfly garden in Wildlife Adventure Zoo Emmen.

However, critical viewers had a funny concern about the queen: had she gotten tangled in the bushes and not noticed that some plants had gotten stuck on her head?

Crowds in cities

Although many people came to the big cities on King’s Day, this hardly caused any problems. A spokesperson for the Amsterdam police speaks of a day “without significant incidents”. He emphasizes that the police were working with many people in the capital and “nipped in the bud” smaller incidents, such as fights. In terms of incidents, it was “comparable to a normal Friday or Saturday evening”.

Hundreds of thousands of people were out in force in the capital. The municipality called on people at the end of the afternoon to avoid Westerstraat in the center, because it was “very busy”.

Utrecht also experienced a busy edition of the holiday as usual. Several event locations became so full during the course of the day that no one was allowed to attend. This applied, among others, to Neude, Janskerkhof, Oudkerkhof and Stadhuisplein. The municipality referred revelers to other squares in the city.

The police in Utrecht also had no major problems to report. A spokeswoman said on Saturday evening that she had no further overview of the deployment that was necessary.