Koningsdag 2014-2024


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It was about time that they would go to one of the provinces in the north for Koningsdag/King's day. So, glad to see that they are visiting Emmen in the north-eastern province of Drenthe this year (very close to the German border). I wonder whether the Zoo (which the city is most famous for - it's the main big Zoo in the north of the country) will somehow feature on this day.
 
I imagine there will be some attention to farming. The province only has 500.000 inhabitants and the city itself is the smallest one they will have visited for this day. Not even 60.000 people live there. So one wonders what they can do to fill up the programme.
 
It was about time that they would go to one of the provinces in the north for Koningsdag/King's day. So, glad to see that they are visiting Emmen in the north-eastern province of Drenthe this year (very close to the German border). I wonder whether the Zoo (which the city is most famous for - it's the main big Zoo in the north of the country) will somehow feature on this day.

A while a go there was commentary about how a large number official duties by the Royal House took place within a set area of the country. I assume Emmen is out of that area? Any that may be partly a reason it was chosen?
 
A while a go there was commentary about how a large number official duties by the Royal House took place within a set area of the country. I assume Emmen is out of that area? Any that may be partly a reason it was chosen?

In terms of provinces you could divide the country in 4 areas of 3 provinces each (number of inhabitants in millions between brackets):
- North: provinces of Friesland (.66), Groningen (.60) and Drenthe (.50) --> 1.76 million inhabitants
- East/Central: Flevoland (.44), Overijssel (1.18), Gelderland (2.13) --> 3.75 million inhabitants
- West/Central: Noord-Holland (2.95), Zuid-Holland (3.80), Utrecht (1.39) --> 8.14 million inhabitants
- South: Zeeland (.39), Noord-Brabant (2.63) and Limburg (1.13) --> 4.15 million inhabitants

The majority of the population lives in the 'West/Central' area, which includes the 4 largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag (The Hague) and Utrecht and many smaller cities. The far majority of royal events (about 2/3rds IIRC) also takes place here.

For Koningsdag to me it makes sense to ensure that each province is visited over the years. So far, the king concentrated on the larger cities that are concentrated in the west/central part and Noord-Brabant (5th, 7th and 9th; in the South) with the exception of Groningen (6th largest) in the north.

The cities/towns visited (between brackets their ranking in size of municipality and number of inhabitants in thousands)
2014 (postponed due to the inauguration in 2013): De Rijp (small), Amstelveen (top 40, 94) --> Noord Holland (West/Central)
2015: Dordrecht (25th, 122) --> Zuid Holland (West/Central)
2016: Zwolle (19th, 132) --> Overijssel (East/Central)
2017: Tilburg (7th, 228) --> Noord-Brabant (South)
2018: Groningen (6th, 238) --> Groningen (North)
2019: Amersfoort (16h, 161) --> Utrecht (West/Central)
2021: Eindhoven (5th, 244) --> Noord-Brabant (South)
2022: Maastricht (23rd, 123) --> Limburg (South)
2023: Rotterdam (2nd, 664) --> Zuid-Holland (West/Central)

2024: Emmen (29th, 109) --> Drenthe (North)

So, so far the king visited the West/Central part 4 times, the South 3 times and the East/Central and North both 1 time. In terms of provinces both Zuid-Holland and Noord-Brabant were visited twice, while Gelderland (the 4th largest province in terms of inhabitants) has still not been visited by the king on King's day. Both Nijmegen (10th) and Arnhem (12th) would be excellent options for a future king's day.

Scroll down on wikipedia for a map with 'dots' for each city he visted.
 
Royalblog points out that Drenthe is the province in which queen Máxima made her debut on (then) Koninginnedag in 2002; since that time the royal family hasn't visited the province on Koninginnedag/Koningsdag.

Drenthe was the province waiting the longest at this point; next in line are Flevoland (East/Central) since 2006 and Friesland (also North) since 2008.

For Flevoland the most likely location for Koningsdag would be the provincial capital of Lelystad as the other larger towns (Almere and Emmeloord) were previously visited by queen Beatrix.

For Friesland there are multiple options, queen Beatrix visited Harlingen, Vlieland (isle), Sneek, Makkum and Franeker (all west to north-west geographically). So, all visits so far were concentrated on 1/4 of the province. So, I would sincerely hope that they finally decide to visit other parts as well, the larger city/towns are: Leeuwarden (provincial capital and largest city - but somewhat in the same area), Drachten (east; second largest - became a center of population because of a Philips factory producing electric shavers; other than that nothing special/noteworthy (other than that I went to secondary school there ?)) and Heerenveen (south; fourth largest - internationally known for ice skating (Thialf)). All others have less than 15.000 inhabitants so unlikely in the current set-up.
 
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The king revealed that he took up a new sport: mountain biking.

A meteorologist looked into the historical data for the weather on both 30 April (Koninginnedag) and 27 April (Koningsdag) and found a temperature difference of more than 1 degree Celsius (16+ degrees vs 15 degrees); in addition, it rains more on the 27th compared to the 30th, so those three days do make a difference...

 

Today in Emmen.
 
More photos:



Princess of Orange:

Prince Pieter-Christiaan van Oranje posted a photo:

 
Here are some more photos of today's celebration:


** ppe gallery ** gtresnews gallery ** rex gallery **

** robinutrecht.photoshelter gallery **

** dailymail article 1 ** dailymail article 2 **


 
Máximas team won the quiz about Emmen (city) and Drenthe (province). As the family is competitive, Amalia told they she studied hard to learn as much as possible about this region.
 
No show up from Mabel and her daughters ans Prince Constantijn Children ?
Mabel stopped attending after Friso’s accident. Beatrix’ other grandchildren never attended and probably never will.

I saw lots of jokes coming by about Prince Bernhard’s enormous glasses.
 
I don't think the king's nieces and nephew are invited... Amalia, Alexia and Ariane started attending after their father became king.
 
It seems that the family has been receiving quite some criticism yet again. This time it was Alexia's turn for the vague answers she gave to the questions she received about her gap year. Of course had she given more concrete answers the very same people would have criticized those too. During the interview she seemed afraid to set a foot wrong and kept looking at her mother to step in, which HM fortunately did. The barage of criticism the RF has received these last years by those who hate this country: the extreme-right, self-styled 'libertarians', neo-Nazi's, conspiracy-nutters, radicalised groups of farmers and anti-vaxxers; makes it rather difficult for them to say anything. The hatred they have to the country and the RF is bizarre. On SBS, a channel for right-wing and extreme-right wing viewers the editor of 'Weekend' gossip magazine was screaming that Alexia should have told 'us' her plans as 'we paid for her trip' - which we did not.

Edwin de ROy van Zuydewyn, ex/husband of Pss Margarita, appeared on the public channel ´Ongehoord Nederland´ (Unheard Netherlands) a day before, spreading all sort of conspiracy nonsense to this channel for conspiracy lunatics, financed by the Dutch state for reasons nobody understands. From Judges at the European court in Strassbourg to Foreign Affairs to a 'social and psychological level' they control everything, says De Roy on our public broadcaster.

A formerly sane former alderman of the city of Amsterdam for the VVD (center-right), Mr. Geert Dales, posted a photo of the Queen participating in the quiz and putting her hand up to respond. He implied she was making a Nazi-salute. It seems half the country has become mad.

It was noted the King has lost quite some weight these years. According to Josine Droogendijk he has a new hobby: mountainbiking.

It seems the popularity polls have stopped sliding downwards. There have been nearly no news- items about it, which there would have been if the negative trend continued. Last year we were bombarded with articles. According to the NPO the numbers 'stabilized'.

I wonder how long we will continue to see the whole family like this, most of them going towards 60 and participating in [mostly juvenile] games. It would have made more sense to have Eloise there than the Van Vollenhovens IMO, she will be better known these days. Though I suppose somewhere in the future it will be limited to WA, Máxima, daughters and possible sons-in-law. Perhaps with Constantijn and Laurentien although even they seem to be hangers on. The press focusses nearly exclusively on the King and his family.
 
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It was the king himself who revealed on Friday during the koningsdagspelen that he started a new hobby/sport (mountain biking) because running wasn't such a good idea while getting older.

While the press indeed focuses on the king, queen and daughters, the others are a great addition for the many people attending koningsdag in person.
 
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