The van Vollenhoven Family, Current Events & Pictures Part 1 (December 2005 - )

[Tina]

Originally Posted by Princess Maxima

Am i the onlyone who thinks that Anita looks pregnant?

hope so

if she isn't in any case she looks very happy

[purple_platinum]

gorgeous and beautiful, dutch royal !
keep them coming...

[Emily]

Originally Posted by purple_platinum

gorgeous and beautiful, dutch royal !
keep them coming...

Ditto! I love seeing photos of this event! Can you also give us some of your impressions of seeing them arrive?

[dutch royal]

It was verry funny because when the cars arrived, you heard princess annette screaming at the chauffeur that he should wait to open the car because here mother - inlaw, princess margriet had to come out of the second car first. Thats why i took pictures of the princess Annette so close..:p

[Squidgy]

Lovely pictures Dutch Royal! Thanks for sharing them.:)

[fanletizia]

04-05-2006 Prof mr. P Van Vollenhoven and Prince Pieter Christiaan at the memorial of WWII at the Grebbenberg.


from PPE

[dutch royal]

Here a picture of Prof. Mr. pieter van vollenhoven at his visit at paleis het loo on may 12th

[Marengo]

Thanks for the picture, dutchroyal! Aways good to see him. Did you make that picture yourself?

---

Yesterday it was reported in the televisionnews and today in several newspapers that the sons and daughters-in-law of Princess Margriet all have special parking permits in their cars which enables them to park anywhere. Usually this permit is only given to doctors. The RVD said that the permit was gien out of safety reasons, because it allows them to get of the street as quickly as possible. However it caused some sour remarks from people living in Amsterdam and owning a car, as it is a real challenge to find any parkingspace there at all (a challenge which makes your blood pressure rise instantly).

[dutch royal]

Yes marengo, i was there to make pictures. It was on a friday and after lunch. I had to work all morning but the palace is not far a way so i took my camera with me to work so that i could go right after my shift was ended.
This picture of pieter was a lucky shot: a lady talked to pieter and he came right over to see the pictures she had made at the oratie in enschede ? He looked at them and he liked them. IN THE MEAN TIME I COULD MAKE A LOT OF PICTURES:p :p :p

[dutch royal]

Here is the picture of the lady and pieter

[princess olga]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Thanks for the picture, dutchroyal! Aways good to see him. Did you make that picture yourself?

---

Yesterday it was reported in the televisionnews and today in several newspapers that the sons and daughters-in-law of Princess Margriet all have special parking permits in their cars which enables them to park anywhere. Usually this permit is only given to doctors. The RVD said that the permit was gien out of safety reasons, because it allows them to get of the street as quickly as possible. However it caused some sour remarks from people living in Amsterdam and owning a car, as it is a real challenge to find any parkingspace there at all (a challenge which makes your blood pressure rise instantly).

Not to mention that in Amsterdam the 'common folk' typically have to wait SEVEN years to get their 'not so special' parking permit.

I expect that in the next few years the Dutch press will probably dig up more stuff like this and I have to say, in this sense I can't wait for Alexander to become king so the Van Vollenhoven kids will automatically lose their membership of the Koninklijk Huis.

Sympathetic and unpretentious as the Van Vollenhovens do seem (bar Aimee who just seems haughty to me, but I don't know the girl--might be entirely wrong on her) I'm starting to think the Dutch Royal House is becoming a bit crowded of late and nice as that is for us royalty junkies, it is just a pain in the neck for the system plus it's undemocratic to boot. Time for a cleanup, I say.

Once they're out of the Koninklijk Huis, the Vollenhoven kids should lose all these privileges (which dare I say it: have been kept secret from the Dutch public) and become just another rich family like tons of others in the world, who, gasp! tend to pay for their own safety precautions if they so please. (think the Kennedys for example)

[Marengo]

Well, the van Vollenhovens dont have a bodyguard etc, so I don't know what security measures the state pays for them. And losing membership of the royal house won't change anything I am afraid, as PC and Floris already did and are still using the permits.

The safety reasoning seems bogus to me as well. As Wendy mentioned at the BRMB, they shop, they walk around/ cycle through Vondelpark etc.

[magnik]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Well, the van Vollenhovens dont have a bodyguard etc, so I don't know what security measures the state pays for them. And losing membership of the royal house won't change anything I am afraid, as PC and Floris already did and are still using the permits.

The safety reasoning seems bogus to me as well. As Wendy mentioned at the BRMB, they shop, they walk around/ cycle through Vondelpark etc.

I agree. I don't have nothing against them but I think that they after losing membership of the RH can and should be treat like the other nobility persons.

[prinses]

Linda, your pictures are 100 % sweet!

[Zonk]

I will admit that I have never had the pleasure of visting Amsterdam (although it is on one of my cities to visit) so I will take the word of my fellow forumists (okay..now I am making up words) about the parking situation BUT so eight people (the sons and their wives) have parking permits. I fail to see the big deal. They are not taking money from the state, they don't have bodyguards, etc. I am sure that there are other people who know someone who knows someone who works in the government and they too got a parking perk and no one reported on it. And the fact is because Princess Margriet is still in the Royal House and who they are (as evidenced by the pictures of Marliene shopping and sweeping her stairs and there participation at family events) they are not regular folks and will not fade away anytime soon. PLUS, I have a feeling 20 to 30 years from now, someone will be looking at a picture of Alexia and Lucas not knowing who he is.

[Squidgy]

I don't have a major problem with it either. Yes, Margriet & Pieter's boys & their families have to put up with having the press follow them around in their private lives (without them asking for this attention & without them really complaining too much about it). I think they deserve some concessions that will help them when they are out in public.

[princess olga]

Originally Posted by Zonk1189

I will admit that I have never had the pleasure of visting Amsterdam (although it is on one of my cities to visit) so I will take the word of my fellow forumists (okay..now I am making up words) about the parking situation BUT so eight people (the sons and their wives) have parking permits. I fail to see the big deal. They are not taking money from the state, they don't have bodyguards, etc. I am sure that there are other people who know someone who knows someone who works in the government and they too got a parking perk and no one reported on it. And the fact is because Princess Margriet is still in the Royal House and who they are (as evidenced by the pictures of Marliene shopping and sweeping her stairs and there participation at family events) they are not regular folks and will not fade away anytime soon. PLUS, I have a feeling 20 to 30 years from now, someone will be looking at a picture of Alexia and Lucas not knowing who he is.

You absolutely have a point but you have to take into account that this is coming at a time in the Netherlands when the long-suffering, average Dutch person, who, mind you, has been paying THROUGH THE NOSE in taxes for as long as I've been on this planet to help sustain their classless society, is discovering their society is perhaps not so classless after all.

What with the very very very light court verdict last week (or was it this week? time flies) of the former CEO of Ahold, who was as it turns out, responsible for cooking that company's books.

Ahold, a Dutch-spawned chain of super markets with stores and brands all over the planet, was, until recently, one of those achievements the Dutch were collectively proud of, and rightly so. Until it turned out the company's honcho's , in concert with their accounting firm, had actually pulled an ENRON!

Worse, turns out now that the CEO who is responsible for this, is getting away with it: the judge let him of lightly, he's not even going to jail.

For those of you I'm boring to tears with this tale, do keep in mind the AHOLD verdict is coinciding with the Vollenhoven parking-'gate'. A minor blip the Vollenhoven parking permit revelation may be, it is coming at a time when the Dutch are still paying up the ying yang in taxes while all kinds of privileges and subsidies they once had in their community-oriented society, are being taken away from them as we speak.

This parking permit story is for many people there the latest confirmation that there's an elite in the Netherlands that has privileges the rest doesn't have, while doing nothing for society, and the average joe there has to subsist on an average salary AND pay for it all.

You should see the hundreds of comments to this story on the site of one of the largest papers in the nation, the Algemeen Dagblad. Boy I always thought the Dutch were mad in their lenience towards their royal family (including myself as I have a weird medieval respect for my queen Beatrix), but if that family doesn't watch it, the tide may well turn.

[tenngirl]

PrincessOlga,
I thought that the Queen was a billionaire in her own right. Why is she taking money from the government if she has all of this personal money?

I really like these girls. I adored Aimee on her wedding day, I thought she seemed so sweet! Anita seems to be very sweet too.

Like others have said, I wish they were photographed more often!

Tenngirl

[Zonk]

Princess Olga...you make very valid points. And your post illustrates what makes this forum so informative. I had no idea about the Ahold scandal or the fact that many Dutch thought that they lived in a classless society. We ALL live in class based society.

[Alexandria]

Originally Posted by princess olga

You absolutely have a point but you have to take into account that this is coming at a time in the Netherlands when the long-suffering, average Dutch person, who, mind you, has been paying THROUGH THE NOSE in taxes for as long as I've been on this planet to help sustain their classless society, is discovering their society is perhaps not so classless after all.

By virtue of the fact that a monarchy exists implies some class level in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is not a republic, has a queen whose eldest son will succeed her, followed by his eldest daughter and so forth, so not everyone is equal in the Netherlands since not everyone will be Queen or King one day.

But if you say that 1% of the population is of a higher class than the 99% that is one thing. And I would say that the van Vollenhoven family would be part of that 1% along with the Queen's sons and their families and the wealthiest of Dutch citizens -- of which there are bound to be some since I highly doubt that everyone, regardless of their job or position within their company, makes the same salary.

I think that a classless society doesn't really exist. There can be societies where the classes are not as differentiated but a true classless society, especially one headed (even symbolically) by a monarchy doesn't exist.

I don't have a problem with the van Vollenhoven sons and their wives having special parking permits. When they attend special occasions -- which is rare but they still do -- such as Pieter-Christiaan attending a memorial service with his father, or the events Maurits periodically attended with his grandfather Bernhard, or the opening of the van Vollenhoven brides exhibit Margriet, Pieter and all four of their daughter-in-laws or Queen's Day, my understanding is that they are not compensated financially for these occasions which take them away from their actual jobs for a day or a few hours of a day.

And considering that they don't have any personal protection and the two eldest van Vollenhoven sons and their young families especially are frequently photographed -- last year Marilene famously so nursing her infant daughter -- by less savoury photographers, I would say that it's a fair trade off. I never see as many pictures of Willem and Maxima with their daughters out and about in the park as I see of Maurits, Marilene, Bernhard Jr. and Annette with their young brood. As the Crown Princely couple Willem and Maxima are able to set certain parameters with the press, including with holding access from certain publications who photograph them privately, which the van Vollenhovens didn't do for years until very recently.

The family also shares the private moments of their lives that they aren't expected to not being part of the royal family officially, such as pictures from their weddings and baptisms of their children. Like it or not, they are public figures and do belong in the least to the Queen's family and both of their parents have devoted their lives to representing the Netherlands at home and abroad -- and quite well, too. I think that some perks and privileges not normally bestowed to the typical Dutch person is warranted in this case.