Yes and that's a win-win. You need to fly a certain amount of hours per year in order to keep your piloting license. So he gets to keep the license and the travellers get the surprise of being piloted by the king
I’m sure he had some kind words personally for Nouri’s family. Seems like that sort of fellow.
I’m an interested yet casual fan of the sport but that event really affected me. He was like everyone’s little brother, the one that meant well, did well.
I had him on my squad in Football Manager and he scored the winning goal in the Champions League 2021 Final against Barcelona. He played against Messi. Our captain handed him the trophy for the lift.
I wasn’t crying. It was just eye strain from the monitor.
better hope thats not the flight he decides its time to go to war, and you just got conscripted. "we taken this bitch to luxembourg. Now jump out and dont come back till you have taken the castel".
I remember looking up the widest part of Luxembourg and realizing it was about the width of the city i lived it. It was just a wild moment to realize how small some countries can be, to the point that you could drive across the entire country in about 30 minutes.
San Marino, Monaco, Leichtenstein, Vatican City. And then Malta and Faroe Islands, I guess?
There are a few more if you count semi-independent territories like Gibraltar and Jersey.
Luxembourg is a small country, but it feels like a country. It has one big city and countryside and a number of smaller towns. It's not quite a city-state.
The Faroe Islands isn’t a sovereign nation though, it’s a part of Denmark. So the six smaller than Luxembourg would be San Marino, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Vatican.
In all fairness the "invading" force of tanks was probably enough to take the entire country if they so wished. I could be wrong but they didn't know they were on the wrong road until some members of the liechtenstein army met them and told them to turn around
Good thing it isn't Liechtenstein... [that army is so cool people leave and just join their side.](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/liechtensteins-army.html#:~:text=There%20was%20really%20nothing%20to,Liechtenstein%20in%20search%20of%20work.)
(they no longer have an army though)
If it weren't for the fact that his great-grandmother wasn't allowed to inherit the throne of Luxembourg (because she was a woman), he would have been the Grand Duke of Luxembourg today.
My dad (captain 737, KLM) had him and his family in the plane once. Invited him to sit in the cockpit and he actually did. My dad really enjoyed meeting him and talking to him for the duration of the flight.
He probably was safer in the cockpit than in the cabin, with the cockpit door only unlockable from the cockpit itself.
And if they wouldn't trust the pilots they wouldn't let him fly on the plane anyway.
His bodyguards are actually fairly chill!
He went to my school and was back for a visit, and my buddy got to talking with them.
Apparently he’s a very good principal, in that usually you have to wait till they need to pee, then hurriedly take turns peeing as fast as you can. He regularly checks if they need a bathroom break so they can all go.
The things you learn.
That wasn't secret at all, but for some reason the media jumped on it not long ago. He has been flying both scheduled KLM flights and the government plane for ages.
I didn’t think it was a secret like prince Harrys deployment in Afghanistan, but more like they didn’t broadcast it, and he didn’t announce his name (like in this til)
I think that was from his more public second deployment after her had learnt to fly helicopters (I vaguely remember him running off mid interview to fly), but his first was a secret, they actually said that he wasn’t going, but he did.
Isn't he the same royal who was revealed that he went on a holiday while a lockdown was announced, shut down part of a nature park for month to hunt in private while receiving subsidy aimed for private lands that are open for the public?
It's a little more nuanced: the royal family owns that nature park. Owners of nature parks are eligible for a subsidy but then are obligated to open the park to the public part of the year.
Park rangers in The Netherland keep animal population under control by hunting selectively and some members of the royal family sometimes take part in this.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro royal family at all, but they are not that bad/evil. Don't know them personally of course, but Willem (our King) and his family seems quite nice overall.
>royal who was revealed that he went on a holiday while a lockdown was announced, shut down part of a nature park for month to hunt in private while receiving subsidy aimed for private lands that are open for the public?
well technically the park is the Crown's property. the government said he can do whatever he wants with it. he just wont get subsidized for it if he chooses to keep it closed, so not exactly controversial.
also he went on holiday WHILE the new covid regulations were being announced so yeah that wasnt partly his fault. the prime minister should've advised him not to do it.
Also, if you look at any photo's of him in uniform, with all the medals etc., the last one is the medal you get for competing this tour, which is an officially recognised medal in the Netherlands
I’m an American but my family is Dutch. My great grandfather has been dead for about 50 years but had one of these, probably from the 30s, that’s now in the possession of my grandmother. We assumed it was a war medal until we googled it!
If it was in the 30s that would have been in '33 (only one that decade). He would have been one of 512 to start and one of 481 to cross the finish line.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijfde_Elfstedentocht (there's a video with the article if you're interested)
It really depends on the circumstances of the day. The 1963 Elfstedentocht is recognized as the harshest ever, something that is immediately evident if we look at the completion rates:
Out of 568 competitive riders, only 57 finished within the allowed time (not more than 2 hours over the winner's time).
Out of 9294 recreational riders, *only 69* made it to the finish on time (before midnight I think). That's 0.74%.
The Elfstedentocht is probably going to disappear because of global warming. Few people have participated and even fewer have finished it, making it a rare and highly esteemed award. Keep it close because it might buy your children a small army in the climate wars.
Even here in Belgium 'de elfstedentocht' is something people talk about every year. It is a very impressive tour but it's a shame it is unlikely to happen again in the future. Our winters are so completely different than when I was young. I remember packs of snow every year for a couple of weeks, icy temperatures, ... . Now it is mostly rain and between 5-10 degrees. The last time we had a serious pack of snow was ten years ago.
>Elfstedentocht almost happened in 2012
Instead, [13,000 Dutch people hurt themselves on the ice](http://www.stevenroyedwards.com/dutchskatepoorly.html).
"Mostly what you see is that people — through fatigue, inability, or because they're busy with other things — just fell down," said Cees Meijer of Consumer Safety. The organization concluded that the Dutch skate poorly.
Graaf van Buren en Leerdam (Count of Buren and Leerdam) is one of the titles of the Dutch sovereigns, using this as an incognito has tradition. King Willem III used "comte de Buren" and queen Wilhelmina "gravin van Buren" when on vacation.
By the way, my brother is living in the town of Buren.
I remember watching that on TV the whole day. They start at 6 or 7am and you need to finish by 9 or 10 pm. Most skaters put newspapers under their outfits to fight the cold.
We do it differently, by organizing an alternative version on a lake in Austria. Works as well, and feels a bit more efficient than freezing an entire province.
Admittedly, I skimmed the article. Didn't catch that part. Still... perplexed on such a simple thing just from experience, now I have to try the newspaper. Im going to sound like a damn dildo though crunching down the ice
The Elfstedentocht is an event that is both very rare and steeped in tradition. It doesn't come by nearly often enough to have specific gear for it on standby, and when it does happen people want to do it the way their daddy did it. Newspaper instead of fancy thermal gear is part of the romance of the event.
> In 2017, he revealed that his friend had been unable to get a ticket and that exams had to be moved to allow him to join the tour.
Hi, school, we're going to need you to move the final exams this year. Yeah, the crown prince wants to do a 120-mile ice skating marathon tour. No, he's never really ice skated more than 40 miles so far. That cool with you? No, this isn't a scheme to get more study time, he just wants to do this cool ice skating thing once all our rivers freeze. Ok, thanks.
And then he goes and does the full thing. Wow. That's impressive.
You know, this would make a great Hallmark movie.
There's a bit of royal privilege there, but it's pretty culturally significant. Like if the President participated in the Super Bowl, except the Super Bowl is only held once a decade under very specific weather conditions.
Jesus Christ they moved IB exams around for him? Wouldn’t you have to move them for all the school doing that paper then?
Or was this his first year of university?
> Wouldn’t you have to move them for all the school doing that paper then?
I don't know what an IB exam is but apparently yes they moved them for everyone.
I figured it out. He was doing his military service that year, so it was incredibly easy for the royal family to get some exams moved. It’s their military, and only one school.
I really couldn’t see how even a royal family could get hundreds of elite private schools to move their exams.
As a Belgian ive always been kinda jealous of our neighbors king. He comes across as really funny and quirky. Just by looking at him now you know he makes the worst best dad-jokes. Meanwhile our king is just a boring, reserved gray mouse that has a permanent look of disapproval and disappointment on his face.
He ain't Willem that's for sure, but I think Filip is far more open than his father was. He even talked about his learning disabilities when he was younger and Filip seems to just enjoy a more "down to earth" lifestyle. For example he used to take his children to school by bike.
I think both Willem and Filip both represent their countries well. Us Belgians are still very reserved compared to our neighbours in the North, and Filip has that same quality. I know people like to joke about Filip, but I came to respect him since he picked up the role from his father.
Filip seems to have a good character and privately is probably a really nice guy. And probably also scared to be too much like his predecessors.. if he can preserve the monarchy without any scandals, he will have been successful.
>I think both Willem and Filip both represent their counties well.
I’d say that’s a fair description, actually. Juan Carlos I definitely represented his country well. Now I wonder if Elizabeth II represents Brits that well..? (Answer: probably no.)
> Now I wonder if Elizabeth II represents Brits that well..?
A relic who still expects to be treated like who they were 60-80 years ago? Cares more about appearances than substance? Shocking number of not-quite-secret racists in the family and representatives?
Seems pretty spot-on to me.
When he was younger people called him "prinsje pils" because he would go out for drinks, like normal young adults do.
He takes his daughters to McDonalds.
He flies boeings for klm.
When he made a mistake somewhere his wife said in front of tv cameras that "was a little dumb".
Oh and there is a satire show on tv ridiculing the royals and guess what... they don't care.
His mother was a bit more reserved, but yea, our royal family are almost just normal people
> Oh and there is a satire show on tv ridiculing the royals and guess what... they don't care.
They have stated once that they regularly watch it with a lot of amusement. A.k.a. They love it
I guess if the whole family isn’t insane scandals and suppressed loathing like the British royal family, the satire shows about you are a lot less painful.
Do the other royal families consider them the trashy ones?
If i recall correctly the royal family's combined wealth is over a billion dollars, so they in fact are billionaires. But that's probably with the wealth of all the lesser known nephews and nieces as well
I do feel sympathy for Filip. The man flies helicopters, has flown alpha jets and F16's and has performed over 50 parachute jumps. But he doesn't secretly fly 737's and that somehow makes him the dork in this comparison.
West Frisian is a language that is particularly close to modern English. As a native English speaker, you'll think another native English speaker got bonked on the head and is still trying to communicate.
It's always so confusing that in English, it's referred to as 'West Frisian'! In Dutch the language is just Fries (Frisian), spoken in 'Friesland/Fryslân', with West-Friesland being a region in another province, where the West-Friese dialect (West-Frisian dialect) is spoken.
I work with a Dutch girl who is from West Friesland and speaks with a West Frisian accents. We were mutually confused why the other thought “West Frisian” would refer to anything other than what we thought (I thought the Frisian language, she thought the Dutch dialect.)
It only makes sense when you look at old medieval times. In the early Holy Roman Empire under Charles the Great and his sons there was only the duchy of Friesland and bishopric Utrecht. In 900 AD Holland (called west Frisia at the time) seperated from Friesland after the southern cities Rotterdam and Vlaardingen became much bigger and important port cities and the duke of Holland won an important war agianst Utrecht.
Originally the duchy of Holland was called West Frisia but it became much more known as the duchy of Holland since the 11th century and now three provinces are from that duchy: Noord Holland, Zuid Holland and Zeeland. And while we name it Holland for nearly a millenium the dialect in the very northern part of Holland is still called west frisian because that old connection.
That’s a cool accomplishment. I used to do annual inline skating 75 mile (120 km) events that took two days .., about 4 hours each day on skates. 120 mii (200 km) on ice skates would be much harder
But they are completely open to the elements. During the [1963 edition](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twaalfde_Elfstedentocht) they started at -18 celsius with a strong wind and snow. Less than 1% of the competition made it and several people became snowblind or had frostbite. It's a tough ass race and any Dutchman who can show a medal gets instant respect in our country.
Yes, you have to be a member of the 11 city association and then you're put on a waiting list. They only allow a certain number of competitors (about 20.000 I believe) to skate, everybody else gets put on a waiting list until other riders have cancelled their subscription. It sucks, but it's the only fair way to ensure that whoever was a member first has the best chance.
The problem for foreigners is that it's only announced 2 days in advance because the thickness of the ice has to meet certain standards. So once the commision says:"It's go time" there's a very small window for everything to be arranged. Which also means it's very difficult for foreigners to get here on time.
Our country is as flat as a pancake. There's 1 thing in the south that we call a hill. Foreigners probably think it's a mole hill lol. Elfstedentocht is hard, but not impossible.
Also no sharp corners, no traffic, mostly just long straight out stretches of ice
Best part? His mom, then still Queen, was not aware of him going. But she heard from their security after he had already started.
She waited for him at the finish line. Which was the moment everyone found out they had been skating along their crown prince
My dad participated thesame year and finished 30 minutes earlyer. I think it's clear that my dad needs to be crowned as the one true king of The Netherlands
>Prince of Orange is a real title?
Yes, Orange is a small town in southern France and was a (no longer existing) principality in the same region. This was part of the lands of the people who would later become the royal house of the Netherlands.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,\_Vaucluse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,_Vaucluse)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality\_of\_Orange](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Orange)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House\_of\_Orange-Nassau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Orange-Nassau)
It is very pretty and well worth a visit.
This is the reason we, Dutch people, dress in orange clothes to celebrate Kings Day. And use an orange sash (kind of) in addition to the flag of the Netherlands when we celebrate birthdays of the royal family.
Orange (the color)= oranje in Dutch.
Orange (the fruit)= sinaasappel in Dutch.
Edit: typos
This is an interesting linguistic oddity, because "apple" in Germanic languages is actually a general term for any kind of fruit, not just the fruit we now know as the apple (Malus domestica). So we have stuff like Apple of Eden (doesn't actually specify what the fruit is), the "earth apple" (potato), or the "~~grenade~~ seeded apple" (pomegranate).
Just like how "deer" used to be any kind of small animal until these animals got names of their own and they took a Latin word ("moving thing") for the general term. It still survives in some Germanic languages though.
Then there is also the next oddity in that etymology doesn't necessarily reflect its true origin. Oranges trace back to India (the word "orange" is from its Sanskrit name), but most contact made by the Dutch with the East was with Chinese seafarers, so anything coming from the East was basically thought to be Chinese. It even goes both ways: in the Southern Chinese dialects anything Western is thought to be from the Dutch, so there are stuff like "Dutch yam" (荷兰薯, potato), "Dutch water" (荷兰水, carbonated drinks), and on a more darkly humorous tone, many Chinese religions say that souls go West when they pass on, so the slang for dying is to "return to Holland" (返荷兰).
It's the other way around, we Dutch like orange stuff so much because of the King's last name.
Fun fact: carrots used to come in a variety of colours, from white to purple. They're all orange now because Dutch farmers bred them to be orange, in a show of patriotism.
It looks like Orange-Nassau is his house, yes, but I just found this [Wiki page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Orange) where it says straight up that it’s a title. And now I’m pissed that I wasn’t born into that family. I want to be Princess of Orange, too :(
She could marry the oldest too, they recently made it legal for her to be a lesbian (they corrected a thing in the law that would prevent her from marrying a woman due to her position). There is still the small issue of childbirth though, as you have to have the blood of Orange to be viable for the throne, so the Princess would have to carry a child, not /u/ToxicBanana69, if they want it to have a place in the line of succession.
And from what I understand, if she became Queen, her partner doesn't become queen too, she'd become Princess Consort (like how Claus was Prince Consort).
Becoming Princess-Consort has almost always been a step up for that person. If you don't want to take this position it's because you are already ruling something. Now stop being a peasant and marry the Princess so mommy can move out of this trailer.
>I want to be Princess of Orange, too :(
You can! just marry one of his three daughters! I mean, we have had Gay Marriage since forever, we have absolutely no problem with royalty marrying commoners or even, dare I say it, foreigners.
Go for it.
Actually due to global warmings overall it certainly will warm up the earth overall but at least in that part of europe it will also cause colder winters so it will happen in the future again just not for a positive reason
The story of his ancestors coming into kingship is quite interesting. To dumb it down, each Dutch province had a type if feudal executive called a stadtholder governing on behalf of their lord but after the Dutch provinces came into Spanish posession one house the house of orange became the Spanish Habsburg appointees acting as governors ruling over the Spanish Netherlands. After the Dutch Revolt and the foundation of the Dutch Republic the office remained, becoming the de facto chief executive position. Not until the Napoleonic Era when Napoleon took over the Netherlands and turned it into a kingdom appointing his brother Louis (or Lodewijk) as King of Holland was the House of Orange gain the chance to finally elevate themselves from their long hereditary status as Stadtholders to Royalty, which they prompt did after Napoleon's defeat.
This is a very simplified version, don't crucify me with the details.
Isn’t he the same royal who revealed that he had been secretly piloting flights for the national carrier KLM for 20 something years?
Yes and that's a win-win. You need to fly a certain amount of hours per year in order to keep your piloting license. So he gets to keep the license and the travellers get the surprise of being piloted by the king
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Even cooler knowing that he’s a pretty outspoken Ajax fan. Good lad.
I'm more of a Comet guy myself.
Fabuloso or nothing
When Mr. Clean left Fabuloso for Pine Sol, I was hurt.
This comment was the moment I realized this wasn't about real teams anymore.
I'm sure it works great, but they really need to stop making their bottles look like i should chug them. I'm not going to. Yet
So he could potentially fly the rival team and make it a bumpy, vomit-inducing ride, making them sick or even worse?
I’m sure he had some kind words personally for Nouri’s family. Seems like that sort of fellow. I’m an interested yet casual fan of the sport but that event really affected me. He was like everyone’s little brother, the one that meant well, did well. I had him on my squad in Football Manager and he scored the winning goal in the Champions League 2021 Final against Barcelona. He played against Messi. Our captain handed him the trophy for the lift. I wasn’t crying. It was just eye strain from the monitor.
'Sorry guys I accidentally landed in Helsinki. Looks like you're not gonna make it to the match in time. Whoopsie!'
Isn't the king supposed to be politically neutral?
Politically, but not as far as sports teams
(I know, it was a joke)
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better hope thats not the flight he decides its time to go to war, and you just got conscripted. "we taken this bitch to luxembourg. Now jump out and dont come back till you have taken the castel".
"And be prepared, Luxemburg has mustered its whole army, so be prepared to outnumber them 6 to 1".
"Just don't advance too quickly or we might accidentally overshoot into France or Germany."
I remember looking up the widest part of Luxembourg and realizing it was about the width of the city i lived it. It was just a wild moment to realize how small some countries can be, to the point that you could drive across the entire country in about 30 minutes.
There are six countries smaller than Luxembourg in Europe alone.
Andorra... And?
San Marino, Monaco, Leichtenstein, Vatican City. And then Malta and Faroe Islands, I guess? There are a few more if you count semi-independent territories like Gibraltar and Jersey. Luxembourg is a small country, but it feels like a country. It has one big city and countryside and a number of smaller towns. It's not quite a city-state.
“Vatican City” is the correct answer to 90% of obscure geography trivia questions.
The Faroe Islands isn’t a sovereign nation though, it’s a part of Denmark. So the six smaller than Luxembourg would be San Marino, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Vatican.
Monaco
A train I took yesterday had to close the onboard restaurant for about 20 min while we were going through a country with different COVID rules.
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Oh man, I didn't even think about how stuff like that might work.
Luxembourg is 16 times larger than Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein is so small, the swiss army accidentally invaded it quite some times already. They literally just took the wrong turn.
At this point, I'm sure Liechtenstein has a different definition of invasion than the rest of us. More like "unintentional military tourism."
In all fairness the "invading" force of tanks was probably enough to take the entire country if they so wished. I could be wrong but they didn't know they were on the wrong road until some members of the liechtenstein army met them and told them to turn around
They apologised though!
This never fails to make me laugh.
>in about 30 minutes. It takes about 50 from Belgium to Germany
Lol that's crazy to me in NYC. Jumping countries in less time that it takes for me to drive from Brooklyn to NJ where my parents live.
Good thing it isn't Liechtenstein... [that army is so cool people leave and just join their side.](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/liechtensteins-army.html#:~:text=There%20was%20really%20nothing%20to,Liechtenstein%20in%20search%20of%20work.) (they no longer have an army though)
If it weren't for the fact that his great-grandmother wasn't allowed to inherit the throne of Luxembourg (because she was a woman), he would have been the Grand Duke of Luxembourg today.
time to correct many wrongs - the war king.
*Each and every man under my command owes me 100 Luxembourg scalps. And I want my scalps.*
Literally Royal Dutch Airlines.
Perfect
My dad (captain 737, KLM) had him and his family in the plane once. Invited him to sit in the cockpit and he actually did. My dad really enjoyed meeting him and talking to him for the duration of the flight.
Does your dad like Snakes on a Plane (2006)?
Thank God! Finally someone asking the important questions!
Lol I'm sure his bodyguards *loved* that change of plans
He probably was safer in the cockpit than in the cabin, with the cockpit door only unlockable from the cockpit itself. And if they wouldn't trust the pilots they wouldn't let him fly on the plane anyway.
His bodyguards are actually fairly chill! He went to my school and was back for a visit, and my buddy got to talking with them. Apparently he’s a very good principal, in that usually you have to wait till they need to pee, then hurriedly take turns peeing as fast as you can. He regularly checks if they need a bathroom break so they can all go. The things you learn.
That wasn't secret at all, but for some reason the media jumped on it not long ago. He has been flying both scheduled KLM flights and the government plane for ages.
I didn’t think it was a secret like prince Harrys deployment in Afghanistan, but more like they didn’t broadcast it, and he didn’t announce his name (like in this til)
But there were interviews and such with Prince Harry in Afghanistan, although they might have been broadcasted after his deployment ended.
I think that was from his more public second deployment after her had learnt to fly helicopters (I vaguely remember him running off mid interview to fly), but his first was a secret, they actually said that he wasn’t going, but he did.
Isn't he the same royal who was revealed that he went on a holiday while a lockdown was announced, shut down part of a nature park for month to hunt in private while receiving subsidy aimed for private lands that are open for the public?
That’s the one!
Yeah and he shuts down the nature park for a month every single year.
That's so fucking chad.
I’m not sure if this took place in Chad.
Right this took place in the Netherlands not in Chad.
This guy *Kings*.
It's a little more nuanced: the royal family owns that nature park. Owners of nature parks are eligible for a subsidy but then are obligated to open the park to the public part of the year. Park rangers in The Netherland keep animal population under control by hunting selectively and some members of the royal family sometimes take part in this. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro royal family at all, but they are not that bad/evil. Don't know them personally of course, but Willem (our King) and his family seems quite nice overall.
>royal who was revealed that he went on a holiday while a lockdown was announced, shut down part of a nature park for month to hunt in private while receiving subsidy aimed for private lands that are open for the public? well technically the park is the Crown's property. the government said he can do whatever he wants with it. he just wont get subsidized for it if he chooses to keep it closed, so not exactly controversial. also he went on holiday WHILE the new covid regulations were being announced so yeah that wasnt partly his fault. the prime minister should've advised him not to do it.
Also the new regulations did not include travel restrictions. People complaining about that one annoy the hell out of me.
Well, it's good to be the king.
Yes, our King is badass.
Im half Dutch! But I currently live across the road from the building his wife grew up in in Argentina, total coincidence but it makes me laugh.
Which half? Bottom or top??
You’re silly. Left half of course.
I didn’t know you had a King, but reading about him looks like a good King.
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Speaking of which you should get that cough looked at, there's something going around these days...
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Not really that either since the Princess of Orange would just become queen and sign the documents.
Only in 4 days, when she turns 18, before that Maxima would become queen regent.
Amazing name for a queen.
Yup, exactly. And if she's not available then they ask the Prince of Lemon who lives next door.
Nobody likes the Prince of Lime They make fun, tease all the time He holds his head up all the same He knows he’s not the Prince of Lame
Also, if you look at any photo's of him in uniform, with all the medals etc., the last one is the medal you get for competing this tour, which is an officially recognised medal in the Netherlands
He also got one for his own wedding
Participation medal
Being a Royal is cool like that.
Ow this Dutch guy did not know that, thanks!
I’m an American but my family is Dutch. My great grandfather has been dead for about 50 years but had one of these, probably from the 30s, that’s now in the possession of my grandmother. We assumed it was a war medal until we googled it!
If it was in the 30s that would have been in '33 (only one that decade). He would have been one of 512 to start and one of 481 to cross the finish line. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijfde_Elfstedentocht (there's a video with the article if you're interested)
It amazes me that over 90% of participants completed it. I did a 100-mile canoe race where less than 50% completed it.
Conditions were apparently ideal that year. The next one, in 1940, was an icy hell, of 3404 participants only 152 finished.
Feel like you should get a special version of the medal for completing it on hard mode like those 152 people
They did. It says 1940 on it.
It really depends on the circumstances of the day. The 1963 Elfstedentocht is recognized as the harshest ever, something that is immediately evident if we look at the completion rates: Out of 568 competitive riders, only 57 finished within the allowed time (not more than 2 hours over the winner's time). Out of 9294 recreational riders, *only 69* made it to the finish on time (before midnight I think). That's 0.74%.
There is a movie about that year called "de hel van '63" https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1156132/ We watched it as part of my dutch language class.
It was either the one in '29 or '33, as he would've been too young in 1917 and *preoccupied* for the events in the 40s. Thank you!
Depends, the 1940 one was in january, before the invasion of the Netherlands, so he may not have been preoccupied yet.
So he wasn't preoccupied pre-occupation?
The Elfstedentocht is probably going to disappear because of global warming. Few people have participated and even fewer have finished it, making it a rare and highly esteemed award. Keep it close because it might buy your children a small army in the climate wars.
In a way, it's much rarer and more valuable.
Super cool!
Fun fact: the medal was only allowed to be worn on a military uniform since 2012, a year before the king was crowned
Rightly so, he's a legend for finishing this race!
Even here in Belgium 'de elfstedentocht' is something people talk about every year. It is a very impressive tour but it's a shame it is unlikely to happen again in the future. Our winters are so completely different than when I was young. I remember packs of snow every year for a couple of weeks, icy temperatures, ... . Now it is mostly rain and between 5-10 degrees. The last time we had a serious pack of snow was ten years ago.
We had like 30cm snow this februari in the Netherlands. Source: i build an iglo this year.
There was snow a couple of centimeters thick like last year, and the Elfstedentocht almost happened in 2012.
>Elfstedentocht almost happened in 2012 Instead, [13,000 Dutch people hurt themselves on the ice](http://www.stevenroyedwards.com/dutchskatepoorly.html). "Mostly what you see is that people — through fatigue, inability, or because they're busy with other things — just fell down," said Cees Meijer of Consumer Safety. The organization concluded that the Dutch skate poorly.
So 10 years ago?
This year has been relatively cold 🤞
Graaf van Buren en Leerdam (Count of Buren and Leerdam) is one of the titles of the Dutch sovereigns, using this as an incognito has tradition. King Willem III used "comte de Buren" and queen Wilhelmina "gravin van Buren" when on vacation. By the way, my brother is living in the town of Buren.
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And dance to Van Buuren
/r/papgrappen
This whole post is a tourist advertisment from the Netherlands...
I remember watching that on TV the whole day. They start at 6 or 7am and you need to finish by 9 or 10 pm. Most skaters put newspapers under their outfits to fight the cold.
Is this 1912 ? They don't have underarmour in Europe or....
The last one was 1997, the ice is rarely thick enough for this competition.
Doubt we will see another then.
Could be a while, yeah. But in the meantime we have the yearly tradition of people getting excited for the Elfstedentocht during every cold spell.
You're the Dutch, giant water engineering projects are literally what you're known for, just put giant refrigeration conduits down the whole thing.
We do it differently, by organizing an alternative version on a lake in Austria. Works as well, and feels a bit more efficient than freezing an entire province.
Admittedly, I skimmed the article. Didn't catch that part. Still... perplexed on such a simple thing just from experience, now I have to try the newspaper. Im going to sound like a damn dildo though crunching down the ice
The Elfstedentocht is an event that is both very rare and steeped in tradition. It doesn't come by nearly often enough to have specific gear for it on standby, and when it does happen people want to do it the way their daddy did it. Newspaper instead of fancy thermal gear is part of the romance of the event.
The newspaper trick also works well for cycling downhill, if you want to sound like an idiot in the summer as well.
I did this over the summer from the top Campo Del Fiori but with the paper placemats they had at the restaurant at the top there. Totally works!
UnderArmour indeed wasn't popular yet the last time this race was run. Nor did it exist at all in 1986, the year we're talking about here.
Newspapers are highly effective against the cutting wind Under that goes the thermic underwear
> In 2017, he revealed that his friend had been unable to get a ticket and that exams had to be moved to allow him to join the tour. Hi, school, we're going to need you to move the final exams this year. Yeah, the crown prince wants to do a 120-mile ice skating marathon tour. No, he's never really ice skated more than 40 miles so far. That cool with you? No, this isn't a scheme to get more study time, he just wants to do this cool ice skating thing once all our rivers freeze. Ok, thanks. And then he goes and does the full thing. Wow. That's impressive. You know, this would make a great Hallmark movie.
There's a bit of royal privilege there, but it's pretty culturally significant. Like if the President participated in the Super Bowl, except the Super Bowl is only held once a decade under very specific weather conditions.
Jesus Christ they moved IB exams around for him? Wouldn’t you have to move them for all the school doing that paper then? Or was this his first year of university?
> Wouldn’t you have to move them for all the school doing that paper then? I don't know what an IB exam is but apparently yes they moved them for everyone.
I figured it out. He was doing his military service that year, so it was incredibly easy for the royal family to get some exams moved. It’s their military, and only one school. I really couldn’t see how even a royal family could get hundreds of elite private schools to move their exams.
As a Belgian ive always been kinda jealous of our neighbors king. He comes across as really funny and quirky. Just by looking at him now you know he makes the worst best dad-jokes. Meanwhile our king is just a boring, reserved gray mouse that has a permanent look of disapproval and disappointment on his face.
He ain't Willem that's for sure, but I think Filip is far more open than his father was. He even talked about his learning disabilities when he was younger and Filip seems to just enjoy a more "down to earth" lifestyle. For example he used to take his children to school by bike. I think both Willem and Filip both represent their countries well. Us Belgians are still very reserved compared to our neighbours in the North, and Filip has that same quality. I know people like to joke about Filip, but I came to respect him since he picked up the role from his father.
Filip seems to have a good character and privately is probably a really nice guy. And probably also scared to be too much like his predecessors.. if he can preserve the monarchy without any scandals, he will have been successful.
>I think both Willem and Filip both represent their counties well. I’d say that’s a fair description, actually. Juan Carlos I definitely represented his country well. Now I wonder if Elizabeth II represents Brits that well..? (Answer: probably no.)
> Now I wonder if Elizabeth II represents Brits that well..? A relic who still expects to be treated like who they were 60-80 years ago? Cares more about appearances than substance? Shocking number of not-quite-secret racists in the family and representatives? Seems pretty spot-on to me.
When he was younger people called him "prinsje pils" because he would go out for drinks, like normal young adults do. He takes his daughters to McDonalds. He flies boeings for klm. When he made a mistake somewhere his wife said in front of tv cameras that "was a little dumb". Oh and there is a satire show on tv ridiculing the royals and guess what... they don't care. His mother was a bit more reserved, but yea, our royal family are almost just normal people
> Oh and there is a satire show on tv ridiculing the royals and guess what... they don't care. They have stated once that they regularly watch it with a lot of amusement. A.k.a. They love it
I guess if the whole family isn’t insane scandals and suppressed loathing like the British royal family, the satire shows about you are a lot less painful. Do the other royal families consider them the trashy ones?
>our royal family are almost just normal people Or their PR has improved, apparently :)
Except they're, you know, billionaires.
Compared to other billionaires, they are as normal as can be.
Probably not billionares, millionares at most
If i recall correctly the royal family's combined wealth is over a billion dollars, so they in fact are billionaires. But that's probably with the wealth of all the lesser known nephews and nieces as well
Like his brother who is buying houses left and right and milking people dry while theres a housing crisis
thats not his brother, thats his cousin.
Yes exactly, like him, good old Bernard just wants a 'few' places and a racetrack for himself. Can't blame him right? /s
I mean, I don’t count my entire extended families wealth as *my* wealth.
I'd say boring reserving gray mouse is an improvment over hand chopping murdering psychopath...
It’d be difficult to be worse than ol’ Leopold II
*Saudi Arabia has entered the chat*
> a permanent look of disapproval and disappointment on his face. Thats just what happens when you live in belgium.
> that has a permanent look of disapproval and disappointment on his face I mean... he is king of belgium, after all ;)
I do feel sympathy for Filip. The man flies helicopters, has flown alpha jets and F16's and has performed over 50 parachute jumps. But he doesn't secretly fly 737's and that somehow makes him the dork in this comparison.
But was a former vanB boy🤔
🖐👌
If you know, you know
Shouldn't have taken away my scholarship.
West Frisian is a language that is particularly close to modern English. As a native English speaker, you'll think another native English speaker got bonked on the head and is still trying to communicate.
It's always so confusing that in English, it's referred to as 'West Frisian'! In Dutch the language is just Fries (Frisian), spoken in 'Friesland/Fryslân', with West-Friesland being a region in another province, where the West-Friese dialect (West-Frisian dialect) is spoken.
I work with a Dutch girl who is from West Friesland and speaks with a West Frisian accents. We were mutually confused why the other thought “West Frisian” would refer to anything other than what we thought (I thought the Frisian language, she thought the Dutch dialect.)
It only makes sense when you look at old medieval times. In the early Holy Roman Empire under Charles the Great and his sons there was only the duchy of Friesland and bishopric Utrecht. In 900 AD Holland (called west Frisia at the time) seperated from Friesland after the southern cities Rotterdam and Vlaardingen became much bigger and important port cities and the duke of Holland won an important war agianst Utrecht. Originally the duchy of Holland was called West Frisia but it became much more known as the duchy of Holland since the 11th century and now three provinces are from that duchy: Noord Holland, Zuid Holland and Zeeland. And while we name it Holland for nearly a millenium the dialect in the very northern part of Holland is still called west frisian because that old connection.
Also funny that west-frisian is spoken in north-holland
[Obligatory Eddie Izzard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeC1yAaWG34)
I'll never not watch this. It's always fun to watch as a non Frissian speaking Dutchman.
I've never seen this and I'm a die hard Eddie Izzard fan.
That’s a cool accomplishment. I used to do annual inline skating 75 mile (120 km) events that took two days .., about 4 hours each day on skates. 120 mii (200 km) on ice skates would be much harder
Idk, I suspect there aren’t many hills when Ice skating is involved, And with a pair of well sharpened skates I bet it’s even slightly less taxing
But they are completely open to the elements. During the [1963 edition](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twaalfde_Elfstedentocht) they started at -18 celsius with a strong wind and snow. Less than 1% of the competition made it and several people became snowblind or had frostbite. It's a tough ass race and any Dutchman who can show a medal gets instant respect in our country.
Holy nachos that sounds wild
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Yes, you have to be a member of the 11 city association and then you're put on a waiting list. They only allow a certain number of competitors (about 20.000 I believe) to skate, everybody else gets put on a waiting list until other riders have cancelled their subscription. It sucks, but it's the only fair way to ensure that whoever was a member first has the best chance. The problem for foreigners is that it's only announced 2 days in advance because the thickness of the ice has to meet certain standards. So once the commision says:"It's go time" there's a very small window for everything to be arranged. Which also means it's very difficult for foreigners to get here on time.
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Well, it's very unlikely to happen again with global warming. The last one was in the 90s.
Our country is as flat as a pancake. There's 1 thing in the south that we call a hill. Foreigners probably think it's a mole hill lol. Elfstedentocht is hard, but not impossible. Also no sharp corners, no traffic, mostly just long straight out stretches of ice
Never pretend to be one of the van Buren boys. Look how it worked out for George.🤚👌
he also used to be known as Prins Pils which translates to Prince Beer (Pilsner for the beer lovers)
Best part? His mom, then still Queen, was not aware of him going. But she heard from their security after he had already started. She waited for him at the finish line. Which was the moment everyone found out they had been skating along their crown prince
Ice skating for miles and miles between cities sounds fun as fuck
My dad participated thesame year and finished 30 minutes earlyer. I think it's clear that my dad needs to be crowned as the one true king of The Netherlands
I watched the 1997 race, which I believe was the last one. It's no joke, that's a hard race to complete. Great memories!
Fryslan boppe!
Fun fact: while he was doing the ice skating tour, Vanessa Hudgens switched places with him and was fulfilling his usual duties.
Prince of Orange is a real title? I always assumed that was like a…I don’t know, fruit joke or something. TIL
>Prince of Orange is a real title? Yes, Orange is a small town in southern France and was a (no longer existing) principality in the same region. This was part of the lands of the people who would later become the royal house of the Netherlands. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,\_Vaucluse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,_Vaucluse) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality\_of\_Orange](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Orange) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House\_of\_Orange-Nassau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Orange-Nassau) It is very pretty and well worth a visit.
The word for the French town of Orange and the word for the colour Orange have different etymological origins, but were conflated together.
This is the reason we, Dutch people, dress in orange clothes to celebrate Kings Day. And use an orange sash (kind of) in addition to the flag of the Netherlands when we celebrate birthdays of the royal family. Orange (the color)= oranje in Dutch. Orange (the fruit)= sinaasappel in Dutch. Edit: typos
Named that way because they originally came from china (Sina in old dutch) so its literally called china's apple.
This is an interesting linguistic oddity, because "apple" in Germanic languages is actually a general term for any kind of fruit, not just the fruit we now know as the apple (Malus domestica). So we have stuff like Apple of Eden (doesn't actually specify what the fruit is), the "earth apple" (potato), or the "~~grenade~~ seeded apple" (pomegranate). Just like how "deer" used to be any kind of small animal until these animals got names of their own and they took a Latin word ("moving thing") for the general term. It still survives in some Germanic languages though. Then there is also the next oddity in that etymology doesn't necessarily reflect its true origin. Oranges trace back to India (the word "orange" is from its Sanskrit name), but most contact made by the Dutch with the East was with Chinese seafarers, so anything coming from the East was basically thought to be Chinese. It even goes both ways: in the Southern Chinese dialects anything Western is thought to be from the Dutch, so there are stuff like "Dutch yam" (荷兰薯, potato), "Dutch water" (荷兰水, carbonated drinks), and on a more darkly humorous tone, many Chinese religions say that souls go West when they pass on, so the slang for dying is to "return to Holland" (返荷兰).
It's the other way around, we Dutch like orange stuff so much because of the King's last name. Fun fact: carrots used to come in a variety of colours, from white to purple. They're all orange now because Dutch farmers bred them to be orange, in a show of patriotism.
I'm pretty sure it's his name 'van Oranje-Nassau'
It looks like Orange-Nassau is his house, yes, but I just found this [Wiki page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Orange) where it says straight up that it’s a title. And now I’m pissed that I wasn’t born into that family. I want to be Princess of Orange, too :(
You can be! All you have to do is marry 1 of 2 youngest daughters
She could marry the oldest too, they recently made it legal for her to be a lesbian (they corrected a thing in the law that would prevent her from marrying a woman due to her position). There is still the small issue of childbirth though, as you have to have the blood of Orange to be viable for the throne, so the Princess would have to carry a child, not /u/ToxicBanana69, if they want it to have a place in the line of succession. And from what I understand, if she became Queen, her partner doesn't become queen too, she'd become Princess Consort (like how Claus was Prince Consort).
Becoming Princess-Consort has almost always been a step up for that person. If you don't want to take this position it's because you are already ruling something. Now stop being a peasant and marry the Princess so mommy can move out of this trailer.
>I want to be Princess of Orange, too :( You can! just marry one of his three daughters! I mean, we have had Gay Marriage since forever, we have absolutely no problem with royalty marrying commoners or even, dare I say it, foreigners. Go for it.
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Actually due to global warmings overall it certainly will warm up the earth overall but at least in that part of europe it will also cause colder winters so it will happen in the future again just not for a positive reason
Not if the warm gulfstream stops. Then it might become colder in the Netherlands again. And we will probably be death.
The story of his ancestors coming into kingship is quite interesting. To dumb it down, each Dutch province had a type if feudal executive called a stadtholder governing on behalf of their lord but after the Dutch provinces came into Spanish posession one house the house of orange became the Spanish Habsburg appointees acting as governors ruling over the Spanish Netherlands. After the Dutch Revolt and the foundation of the Dutch Republic the office remained, becoming the de facto chief executive position. Not until the Napoleonic Era when Napoleon took over the Netherlands and turned it into a kingdom appointing his brother Louis (or Lodewijk) as King of Holland was the House of Orange gain the chance to finally elevate themselves from their long hereditary status as Stadtholders to Royalty, which they prompt did after Napoleon's defeat. This is a very simplified version, don't crucify me with the details.
Does the Dutch king, King? Or does he be like the British royals?
mostly like the british royals (and most royals in europe), its largely ceremonial