April 30 - The wearing of the "orange" for 4 million people
Before we go the all of the orange displayed in Amsterdam, we must talk about the reason that the Rijksmuseum was even built. (See the previous blog entry: Part 1) The famous painting The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frask Banning Cocq needed to be housed in a special museum. Hence - the birth of the Rijksmuseum. It is the most famous painting there and one of the most famous in the whole world. The painter, of course, is the Dutch painter - Rembrandt van Rijn.
The painting is renowned for three characteristics: its colossal size
(363 cm × 437 cm (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft), the effective use of light and
shadow, chiaroscuro, and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military portrait. It was completed in 1642.
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| Rembrandt's famous "The Nightwatch" |
Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among
the crowd, the two gentlemen in the centre (from whom the painting gets
its original title), and the small girl in the centre left background.
Behind them, the company's colors are carried by the ensign, Jan
Visscher Cornelissen. Rembrandt has displayed the traditional emblem of the Arquebusiers in
the painting in a natural way: the girl in yellow dress in the
background is carrying the main symbols. She is a kind-of mascot
herself: the claws of a dead chicken on her belt represent the
Arquebusiers;
the pistol behind the chicken stands for 'clover'; and, she is holding
the militia's goblet. The man in front of her is wearing a helmet with
an oak leaf, a traditional motif of the Arquebusiers. The dead chicken
is also meant to represent a defeated adversary. The color yellow is
often associated with victory.
After we finished visting for 6 hours at the Rijksmuseum, we took our backpacks and walked to the train station. Normally it would be a 30 minute walk, but trying to get through the crowds was a major endeavor, so it ended up taking over two hours.
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| Queen's Day crowds 2013 |
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| People were really dressed crazy |
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| A family band entertains on the street |
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| The canals were packed with boats and the boats were packed with people dancing and celebrating |
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| ....and drinking - plenty of that going on |
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| Congratulations Queen Beatrix for retiring - the Dutch people love you! |
Orange-coloured carrots appeared in the
Netherlands in the 16th century. Before that carrots were white,
yellow, black, purple or red. Orange carrots are said to have been
bred in honour of the House of Orange, who led the Dutch Revolt
against Spain and later became the Dutch Royal family. Orange is
still the official colour of the Netherlands and a sign of
patriotism.
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| We just had to celebrate, too, so we wore orange as we walked down the streets! It was a chilly day, despite all the sunshine |
Ok....so you've got 4 million people visiting Amsterdam for all of the celebrations, so how to manage the main necessities?
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| Every few blocks we'd see one of these for the males. |
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| oops...caught 'cha! |
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| All ages, all kinds of orange, and definitely fun to "people watch!" |
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| Now why is it that the girls have to pay to go? Not fair! |
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| A drunk trio |
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| This was a BIG challenge getting through all these people to the Train Station |
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