High on my list this Summer was a visit to Amsterdam. On 3 September 2016 I didn’t manage to do everything I wanted, but that wasn’t such a big deal. And the company – royalty-watcher Oscar Meijer – was good as always.
The “Nieuwe Kerk” where the Dutch monarchs are being inaugurated, is an interesting place to visit if you haven’t been there before yet. But we both had been there lots of times. However we wanted to have a quick look inside to see the exhibition “History & Royalty: Journey in Time”. According to some people I know it wasn’t the first time the exhibition was on display. And it wasn’t a real exhibition either. Some nice videos to see, a few banners, and a huge picture of the inauguration of King Willem-Alexander on 30 April 2013. Of course we had our picture taken in front of it, and it turned out we accidentally had chosen wearing matching outfits in our national colours red-white-blue. Their new exhibition, starting on 1 October, sounds much more intriguing: Marilyn Monroe (yes, in a church)! Might be worth going, even for a royalty watcher.
Much more fun than we thought beforehand was the exhibition next-door at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Also a Summer event only unfortunately. The exhibition “Dynastie. Portretten van Oranje-Nassau” (Dynasty. Portraits of Orange-Nassau) was on display until 25 September. It was opened on 1 July by King Willem-Alexander personally. Lots and lots of portraits of Stadtholders, Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses decorated the halls and rooms of the palace for the time being. Not that there usually aren’t any portraits, but not as many. From state portraits and royals on horse to children’s portraits, the paintings gave an overview of the members of the Orange-Dynasty over the centuries. For a long time it was a tradition as a royal to have your portrait painted, and even now there is the photography it is still done. Some of the paintings, newly restored, were on loan from Palace Huis ten Bosch. There were much more portraits on show than I had thought before, and I especially enjoyed the children’s portraits and galleries with beautiful ladies and stadtholders/monarchs.
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