The Dutch celebrate an annual orange crush – Queen’s day, or Koninginnedag – a national holiday like no other, on the Queen’s birthday each year. Though, really, they are such considerate people they reschedule her cold, wintery birthdate to April to assure enjoyable weather.

Nobody at last year’s event knew it would be the last regular celebration for quite some time. Beloved Queen Beatrix abdicated the throne to her son Willem-Alexander today, so it’ll be King’s Day for quite a while.

Backstory and history aside, what an experience!

Tricia and I were armed with a few orange outfits, and lots of smiles:

Queen’s Night kicked off the pandemonium and served as a preview of what was to come:

Queen’s Day started with a nationwide garage sale – I snapped this picture from our hotel room quite early that morning:

The streets and parks were packed with booths and tables full of folks doing all kinds of things to earn (tax-free) money, like flipping pancakes to fund their upcoming wedding…

Or letting people throw eggs at their face:

How’s about a Queen-themed beanbag toss?

I loved everyone’s ingenuity and creativeness, and the fact that lots of booths were family affairs – even tiny kids got in on the action. And we could tell the day was full of family traditions.

As the day progressed, so did the party:

We were lucky enough to meet up with Rachel – it felt like spending time with an old friend since we’ve followed each other online for a few years.

Rachel’s the one wearing Orange. Ha! That’s her in the middle.

And it was crazy that we said good-bye, and then ran into her in the crowd again later – considering the masses, what were the chances!?

No trip to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to the Bulldog (if you’re a tourist, and I am. And no, we didn’t smoke any.)

We were pretty tired by the end of the day…

And ended the day like Queens.

Tune in tomorrow – there are lots of tulips, bicycles, and windmills coming up next!