Queen's Day ... has come, but not completely gone.

Wow.

Queen's Day was unbelievable. Impressions run the full length of the spectrum. It was a beautiful day weatherwise - sunny, the clearest blue sky and about 22 degrees. We started wandering the canals around 10:00 am.

They warn people not to drive in Amsterdam on Queen's Day, and that is for good reason. Streets become virtually impassable by noon unless you are walking - and at times that becomes impossible too. And most of the transit in the City Centre ceases as well - there are just too many people. It didn't matter where you looked - there was a sea of orange-clad people - down the smallest of alleys, and packed in boats along the canals. Every bridge was lined with people, and most of the Old City Squares had stages and live music. It is legal to drink in the streets on Queen's Day, and Heineken and Amstel were flowing freely.

In addition, Amsterdam turns into a massive city-wide flea market / garage sale on Queen's Day. It is a chance for everyone to sell anything and everything. Some youngsters got quite enterprising, selling baked goods, lemonade, fresh fruit and some even with coolers of water and Heineken on ice. The beer from these young entrepreneurs was much more affordable than from the bars (that charged everybody a 1 euro "refundable deposit" on disposable plastic cups - nice scam!). Some people loaded up on cases of Prosecco (sp?) and were selling this with fresh strawberries and orange juice. Quite refined!

So the day was amazing - we walked miles and miles and had a great time. Finally, around 6:00 pm, the streets started to clear a bit. We stopped at a tapas restaurant (Tapas L'Amour) and had probably the worst meal we've ever had - it was so bad, that we posted a review on Trip Advisor last night. From there, we headed back to a Belgian Beer pub we had noticed on Saturday. We finished off the day there with a couple wonderful Belgian ales. After such a wild day, the city was shutting down by 10:00. On our walk back to the hotel, we travelled streets that were crammed with people only a few hours earlier, but all that was visible now was garbage. In the course of 12 hours, Amsterdam had become, by far, the most filthy city we have ever walked through. Overnight, some streets did get cleaned up, but tonight, there are still heaps of garbage in many areas of the city. A large part of the reason for this is the almost total lack of trash receptacles throughout the city - pretty poor planning, given they have done this before and know that millions (literally!) of people descend on the city.

But it was, all in all, an incredible day - a completely unique experience. Pics to follow soon.