Two days before King’s Day I was in Amsterdam with my friend Aafke. Preparations for the big celebration of the King’s birthday were already going on. By accident I wore a blue, white and orange outfit, which would have been perfect for King’s Day. It was an outfit I had come up with not even thinking of this. Orange is one of my favourite colours, but it also happens to be the colour of our royals. The King is called Willem-Alexander van Oranje (=of Orange). Everybody dresses in blue, white, red (the flag colours) and/or orange on the 27th of April.

Below: Amsterdam is crazy then. This is a photo from 2025, crazy busy and really dangerous. The fire brigade and ambulances couldn’t get through. The council of Amsterdam was successful in keeping it less busy this year which of course led to some grumbling. Understandable but necessary.

Below: A well-known café in the centre is called De Blaffende Vis (The Barking Fish) and every year, since about 30 years, they have a new decoration for King’s Day on their building. This is the one for 2026, our previous queen Beatrix (abbreviated to Bea) as a hippie.

Anyway, let’s go back to my day with Aafke. We headed to the ‘9 Straatjes’ (the 9 Streets) which is a lovely area of Amsterdam.

Below: Aafke took photos for my blog with my iPhone as I didn’t want to schlep my heavy camera with me all day. Not the best photos but I bet, you don’t care. The trousers are COS (as seen in this post and in this post and in this post. I am doing well with these trousers. The belt is Weekend Max Mara, the bag is Gianni Chiarini, the trainers Vic Matiė (years old) and the new earrings (orange with a golden button) Lara Design. Ron really liked this outfit.

On our way to the 9 Streets, we passed some amazing buildings.

Below: This must have been a warehouse in the old days. At the top of the building is a beam with a pulley and a rope, to hoist things up. A method still very much in use in Amsterdam, also for private homes.

Below: Magnificent.

Below: The old Dutch writing on the ground floor indicates that this used to be a tobacco store. Apparently it is now a rather good restaurant.

Below: Next door we saw this very small house although not the smallest house in Amsterdam. In the old days home owners were taxed by the width of the house on the pavement.

We went in and out of shops the whole day. I was knackered when I came home.

Below: For some warmth I had put on my colourful Essentiel Antwerp jacket (such a good find). And see the green and white tote?

Below: As Aafke and I started to walk into Amsterdam, even before we had had coffee, we saw some nice totes for next to nothing hanging outside a shop. I bought this green one and Aafke has a cream one which you will see later. My perfect colour green with cream and gold, my ideal colour combination.

Below: I took this photo later at home to show you the tote. By then, my hair had collapsed.

Below: OK, the quality of the photos is bad but as long as it tells the story, right? This is the entrance of the Pulizer hotel.

Below: I took a photo of Aafke here as well. Aafke is a bright and sweet woman with whom I can roar with laughter. I am so grateful for all these amazing women, whom I can call a friend.

Below: Walking away from the 9 Streets into the ‘Jordaan’ (another lovely area of Amsterdam) we passed this canal. The restaurant on the left had a big terrace.

Below: Close-up of the terrace. Isn’t it idyllic? The sun was out and it had gotten warm (when you were in the sun). That means everybody is out on a terrace. We Dutch know it usually never lasts very long so we want to make the most of it.

Below: Me and Aafke on the only available seats outside. All the terraces were packed and we wound up here, which was a strange little place. They served the cappuccino in paper cups and charged far less than other places. It turned out to be excellent coffee.
The tote which Aafke bought is on the white chair beside her; cream with gold.

Below: We continued to Noordermarkt. What a lovely houseboat this is. And then all that spring green on the trees and the sunshine. Such things, together with a good friend and laughter, bring me in a reckless (= spending) mood.

Below: The green and cream bag together with these bangles and brooches didn’t break the bank. But I also bought a very bright checked summer blazer. It was heavily reduced in price and I love it, but you will have to wait until it is warmer and will be photographed for a blog post.

Below: At Noordermarkt this lady struck me. She looked so good and didn’t mind her photo being taken and put on my blog. Getting consent is so much easier in Amsterdam.

The bright blazer I mentioned, I bought on our way back to the station. It was in the outlet store of Margriet Nannings which means expensive designer stuff for a price I can afford.

A thoroughly enjoyable day with lots of laughter.

What happened in my life this week

Apart from my trip to Amsterdam with Aafke, the week was pretty quiet.

On the Sunday I didn’t want to do anything as I was still tired from walking all day Saturday. It was a warm day and for the first time this year, I was able to lie in the sun in the garden from 3.30 to 5 pm. Anticipating this, I hadn’t put any make-up on.

Below: Me with so/so hair and no make-up, wearing one of my new bracelets. The old jumper is bright pink, not red.

We didn’t go into town for King’s Day on Monday as we have done that so often, we know this by now. But if you are interested in what such a day is like, click for the post King’s Day 2014 (nice one) in Amsterdam and the post King’s Day 2018 in Haarlem.

I did wear the right colours that day though (below), but we went to the beach with the dog and sat on a terrace in the sun. Casual dressing was in order.

Below: These little calves live nearby. They are so fragile, they look like deer. Adorable.

Below: Nicky and Randolf took the granddaughters to the tulip fields. Here is Evy.

Below: And here is Zoë. These fields attract so many tourists as you can imagine. The Keukenhof is a popular place to see the flowers.

Below: Here is a little blurry video of Nicky and the children in the tulip fields.

Because of my photographing the birds of prey last week, my camera had different settings. What to do? I was unhappy with the original settings and still far from an expert in camera settings. Trying to figure it out myself, I changed the settings and photographed a couple of my neighbours. I didn’t do too badly so the photos Marjolein and I took on the Wednesday, also in Amsterdam, are better. Still, my camera shop guy has to check and give me some pointers which will happen next Friday.

This Friday the weather was really good, it was like summertime, with lower temperatures in the morning of course. In the afternoon 19º C at sea and 22° C in Haarlem.

Below: We went to the beach with dog Watson in the morning and saw this abandoned cart. The text in the cart said: “Leave cart alone. Gone shrimp fishing in the sea. Thank you.”

Below: Sure enough, a few minutes later we passed him. He was walking backwards, trawling a net. You can see the end of the net on the left, marked with an orange ball. Heavy work.

Below: And as we headed back to the terrace, he was looking at his catch. He hated the two jelly fish as they hurt the shrimps so he threw them back in the sea. Most crabs walked back to the sea by themselves but he said he would help the rest, only taking the shrimps with him which would be a tiny sack full (his words.)

In the afternoon I lay in the sun in the garden for an hour. Great day.

Greetje