Amsterdam looked wonderful on the occasion of the abdication of Queen Beatrix and the investiture of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands on 30 April 2013.
I arrived in Amsterdam on the 29th and in the afternoon spent some time having a look at the area around the Royal Palace. The city looked very festive with the national colours red, white, blue and orange all over the place. Many souvenirs and on top of the big department store De Bijenkorf there were two huge gold crowns of plastic. Lots of curious people in the streets too. It was not too warm, but at least the sun was shining.
