Happy Queen's Day 2012!

Happy Queen's Day everyone!

 

Today is our one and only national holiday in Holland where we all dress up in orange and have a great time :)As I'm in London and not in NL, I celebrated a few days early (well more like a few weeks) as they had the House of Holland Dutch Day in Trafalgar Square two weeks ago. It was so much fun!

 

 The bf was away so I went alone, but I had tons of fun anyway. The entrance alone was very promising, with poffertjes, friet, and Dutch beer :)

I just had to have poffertjes straight away! It was still very early and not a lot of people were there yet, so there was no queue, always a benefit ;) They were a bit pricey (£4 for 8 poffertjes), but it's not like I can have these every day. By the way, if you want to know what a 'poffertje' is, click here) And no, we NEVER eat these or pancakes with lemon! Yugh... 

The weather was gorgeous, and Lord Nelson made sure it would stay that way ;)

Check me out! All in my orange kit, and with my tiny orange windmill I managed to score from the Easyjet stand. I also managed to lose it in style later on when I was getting something to eat *pout* but at least I have proof that I once had one ;)

There were lots of flowers too of course and I really wanted to have some tulips, but I'd be there for hours so I waited till I just had to leave and got 50 tulips for a tenner instead of 20 for a fiver :) Score! Btw, the guy in the bottom right of the collage was bald and asked the girl from the stand if he could borrow the hat for a picture, it was so funny with the braids that I just had to get a piccie too!

Of course there had to be some merchandise too, and this year's theme was 'who let the Dutch out' LOL. They played a spoof of the song several times that day... I was all dressed up already but these lovely people still let me take their picture :)

There were also stands with cheeses and yes STROOPWAFELS! Not the ones from Starbucks or something but the REAL deal, made fresh if you wanted even! Sooo yummy! I only bought one pack though, didn't want to go overboard ;)

 I saw this great 'scootmobile' (totally blanked on the English word, sorry... this is one of those thingies that people who can't walk drive to go to town), but dressed up as a Harley Davidson! It looks amazing! Honestly, except fr the fact that had three wheels and a comfy seat, you couldn't tell it was not a Harley :) Plus the man was really nice and allowed me to take a piccie of him in his vehicle. I also started a queue to do this as I saw a line forming behind me hihi...

Being as crazy as we are, lots of people made an effort to dress up before coming to the square. I hope the collage isn't too small, but I didn't want to bombard you with pictures so this is a great way to do it! There was a stall that gave out balloon hats (major queue with lots of kids so I passed on that one myself), and just lots of cool outfits. The girl with the bow on the top right was actually English but her bow came from Hema and I think I will make something similar soon ;)

 I saw these two girls all day, somehow I kept bumping into them! Then at one point I noticed them using makeup so I just had to ask if I could have some too. No, I don't usually carry red/white/blue makeup ;) And they only too happy to help out, so here I am with my cool Dutch flag makeup. I really have to get one of those sticks... It's three-in-one so with one line you have all three colours, brilliant! Also LOVED their outfits of course :)

 

So very Dutch, all dressed in kit, eating frietje patat (Dutch fries with mayonaise) near the water. Loved their hats also, so many people had those!

I couldn't get the hat, but I could get food. :) Mmmm... frikandel speciaal and frietje pinda, sooo good! Yes, I know it doesn't look very appealing but it is really really nice :)

My gorgeous tulips :) Didn't think that buying 5 bunches of purple tulips would be a great idea, so I ended up with 2 purple bunches, 1 white, 1 pink, and 1 yellow/red. They lasted for a week and looked very pretty.

It was a really nice day out, and finally I had made it to the Dutch day as I always seem to miss it usually...

And just check out this cake I baked for today! I was originally going to bake cupcakes, but my bundt cake is a much safer option, so I ended up making this instead. It's the Dutch flag (red/white/blue) with orange icing and gold sugar balls on top for a royal effect. It's a banana/white chocolate cake :) I added white chocolate chips but they seem to have completely melted into the batter as I can't see them! LOL. I couldn't use cocoa of the colour effect would be ruined, but I think it came out lovely :) The recipe I used was the one I normally use for the Banana/Chocolate one, I just left out the cocoa powder and added white choc chips instead.

 After work we went to De Hems, the one and only Dutch pub in London. I wanted to go early as it tends to get really busy in there...

 
Yummy Dutch beer!

 
As usual it was very orange inside :)

Yay more beer! Hey I only had 2 :)

Of course the bf was there too, and I even managed to put some Dutch-flag-makeup on him! 

Now I'm home and after a good day and lots of cake, I can honestly say it was a good day. Though drinking two beers is definitely too much for a Monday night, I need to go and laze around on the sofa now.

I hope you will celebrate/have celebrated a little bit also, at least by eating a carrot. Oh yes, maybe something you didn't know: the Dutch are responsible for the orange colour of the carrot. Don't believe me? Check here. The carrot used to be purple!