Usually I wouldn’t even have thought about it. But with the Queen having announced her abdication on Monday, it just occured to me on Thursday that I was actually celebrating my 33th anniversary as a royalty watcher. I am not quite sure whether that was the real starting date, but I think so. On 31 January 1980 Queen Juliana (1909-2004) announced that she would abdicate in favour of her daughter Princess Beatrix on 30 April 1980. I think that for the little girl I was back then, just 6 1/2 years old, the whole event was of course most intrigueing. I still have some of the souvenirs I got back then from my mother who loved the royal family too, and was quite happy with my interest in the whole event. At schools all over the country the event of course was being discussed. I received a glass with the old and new Queen on it, and I still have the workbook I got with drawings and stories to teach us about the monarchy.
But I can’t really remember much of the whole abdication anymore. I am sure I must have been sitting in front of the television, and my mother said last week she thinks we have been into town. Of course it was Queen’s Day and the whole country was celebrating. Now 33 years later I will once again go through a change of monarchs. Not sure yet whether I will be able to go to Amsterdam, but I really hope I can, as it must be quite exciting to be there on such an historical moment. It is a once in a lifetime event, and I am quite certain the next time I am likely too old to go to Amsterdam personally.
I loved your website netty royal, read it for years, loved all the pictures/stories. I too am a royalist. I believe for me it started with the coronation picture of Queen Elizabeth I saw in a World Book Encyclopedia when I was 8 years old. Since then I have read many books on the royals. We saw the royal wedding England 2011, it was my 50th birthday present from my husband and then flew on to France where I had my first encounter with “royals” . My husband and I were walking down a street, where Brasserie Lipp is located (?) and saw Prince Johan Friso and Princess Mabel right in FRONT of us and they walked into the Brasserie. And sitting at a window table was Prince Filiberto Emmanuel – Prince of Piedmont and his wife, who for some reason dyed her hair blond – looked very unbecoming. Anyway thank you for your blog –
Think that if you’re addicted to royals once, you never get rid of them again 🙂 Lovely birthday present from your husband. Haven’t been in Paris for ages (almost 20 years I think). And it is so much fun “meeting” royals in real life. You were quite lucky to see them in the street, and not on official occasions.