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Oranje in New York

The Prince & Princess of Orange Celebrate 400 Years of the Hudson

THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN New York and the Netherlands go back far; back to the very beginning indeed, to 1609 when Henry Hudson, in the service of the Dutch, first set eyes on the greatest harbour of the Atlantic seaboard. The four-hundredth anniversary of that event brought the Prince and Princess of Orange, the heirs to the Dutch throne over to old New Amsterdam for the culmination of the year’s quadricentenary celebrations.

After their arrival in the Empire State, Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima sped straight up the Hudson Valley to West Point, the pearl of the river. The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United States are official military allies, with at least 1,770 Dutch soldiers serving in Afghanistan, plus an undisclosed number of special forces from the Korps Commandotroepen.

The royal couple met the Commandant of the United States Military Academy, as well as a number of cadets at the college.

Willem-Alexander’s mother Queen Beatrix (then a mere princess) visited West Point on her New York visit in 1959.

A “Dutch village” was set up for a week at Bowling Green in downtown Manhattan for New Yorkers to learn more about traditional Dutch culture.

Some of the traditional cuisine of the Netherlands was on offer. The Prince and Princess are seen here enjoying poffertjes, the delicious miniature Dutch pancakes usually served with butter and sugar — absolutely delicious!

The anniversary of the September 11th attacks was remembered at the West End Collegiate Church, which has taken over the role of the Dutch church of New York since the demolition of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas.

Appropriately for a country as commercial as the Netherlands, the Prince and Princess of Orange were also welcomed at the New York Stock Exchange. Amsterdam has the oldest stock exchange in the Old World, while New York’s is the oldest in the New World.

The Prince & Princess are not the only famous Dutch visitors to America this year. Vermeer’s Milkmaid has come to New York for the first time since 1939.

The couple met members of New York’s Netherlandic community on Governors Island, after which they joined Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren at the New Island Festival taking place on the island where the Dutch flag was first planted in North America.

The visit to New York of Her Netherlandic Majesty’s Ship Tromp, a De Zeven Provinciën class frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy, was timed to coincide with that of the Prince & Princess of Orange. HNLMS Tromp is seen here with the Half-Moon, a reconstruction of the ship that took Henry Hudson to the New World in 1609.

Published at 11:08 am on Monday 28 September 2009. Categories: Governors Island Monarchy Netherlands New York The Hudson Tags: , , , .
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