I saw the King!

Last Thursday I officially saw the King of the Netherland- Koning Willem-Alexander.

But I really should state the many exciting happenings of the day in chronological order.  Thus, I shall go back to the beginning.  I was invited to be part of a photo shoot for the university.  That sounded fun to me, so I hopped on my bike and pedaled my way to university.  It is now a route that I am very familiar with, and no longer get lost on.  Quite a relief!  I arrived at the university to discover that there was a great and unusual commotion going on.  Hundreds of people were standing outside the tallest building.  There were fire trucks all over campus and firemen guarding the entrances.  I asked some of the students (in Dutch) and found out that there was a small fire on one of the highest floors!  I also got to see where firemen get their water from in the Netherlands.  Instead of fire hydrants they lift up bricks from the ground and screw in a sort of fire hydrant thing into a pipe in the ground.  It's probably more sanitary that way because dogs can't pee all over it.  But in any case, it was very fascinating, and I also got to see water come gushing out all over the ground.

 

Sorry the building is sideways (I am still technologically-challenged me after all)

Eventually I tore myself away from the riveting scene to head over to another building where people were meeting for the photo shoot.  Then followed an hour of posing for photos with a group of people.  'Look natural' the photographer kept saying.  Well, that can be a bit challenging when we don't know each other.  But we laughed and made the best of it, and apparently the photos turned out very well, though I haven't seen them yet.

For a cool effect for one picture, we had one guy sit on Erasmus' head, and the rest of us took a picture of him while the photographer took a picture of all of us.  So here's the picture I took.
After the photo shoot I headed out on my bike toward the new Centraal Station.  It was the official opening day and Koning Willem-Alexander was going there to make the official declaration that it was in business.  I was quite proud of myself because I managed to bike to the station without getting lost!  All by myself too! 

At the station there were oodles of people.  But an hour and a half of waiting in the crowd eventually paid off.  Standing on tiptoes as high as I could (there are times I wish I was taller) I could see Koning Willem Alexander step onto a podium and declare the station open.  It was a very brief sighting, but still quite exciting, and good for bragging rights because now I can say I've seen a king!

This last picture is of a building near the station, and it's kind of difficult to see, but all along the roof and the top balconies there were dozens of people standing and watching. 
After the action was over I headed back to my bike and realized I had no idea whatsoever which direction was where.  I always carry a map of Rotterdam in my saddle bag, but that doesn't help me much if I don't know which way I'm facing.  So I asked some people for help, in Dutch of course.  And as usual they responded in English.  Grrr.  I can understand Dutch now (including the sermons in church!) but I still have an English accent.  Almost every time I try to speak Dutch people answer in English.  That's not very helpful for me to learn Dutch better.  But oh well, at least I was pointed in the general direction I had to take.

So thus I headed home, happy and healthy, and thanking God for all the gloriously beautiful sunshine we've been having in Rotterdam.