The largest statevisit ever!

Saturday 14 juni 2008 in Baarn.

Richard Lionhart and Berengaria of Navarra (Blue)

On this site you can find a report on this amazing day by Blue.
The pictures on this site were made by Johan for the Stichting Oud-Oranje unless the text says otherwhise.

Blue's report

The evening before the show the group gathered in Utrecht. The nect morning the first group had to get up at 5 in the morning in order to get everybody ready including hair and make-up. Afterall, the show was to start at 10 and a lot of work needed to be done.

Berengaria helping husband Richard Lionhart with his chainmail.

Ronald and Blue were both part of this show, Ronald as Frederik Hendrik of Oranje Nassau and Blue as Berangaria of Navarra. Ronald had to were a piece of armour that was very heavy and Blue had to walk on wooden 'trippen' which made walking quit the challange!

The first part of the show at the railwaymuseum but it took quit some organization to get all the models and there dresses savely to this location. It is very odd to see Elisabeth of Engeland and Elisabeth Ostria (Sissi) together in the back of a truck.

At ten sharp we were ready to go. We all got to walk the red carpet while Juliana of Stolberg and her husband William the Rich introduced us to the audiance. A number of kings and queens were offered a royal banquet while others took a walk or whatch a dance company preform old waltzes.

The Dutch Royals family at the banquet

We had to be on the train at 12.15 exactly and what a train it was! A historical train named ‘De Blokkendoos’ (1927) would take us from Utrecht to Baarn.

Interieur of de Blokkendoos. Getting of the train and on to the 'trippen'

At 13.00 hours we arrived in Baarn and most of us were a bit bemused. Still on the train we had seen the people standing along the tracks to catch a glimps of the train. But ones we got to the trainstation itself and saw how many people were there...We knew that there would be a lot of people but this many?

From the station we left for the royal palace Soestduik. It was a little tense how the horses pulling the coaches would react to this many people but they were brilliant.

All the coachmen were volunteers and with there old coaches they made the total picture of the show even better then it already was. A big thankyou to all of them!

Coachman with dog. And Ronald as Frederik Hendrik with wive Amalia.

It was a bit cold that day but since most of us in thick and heavy costumes this was better hot weather. But Stefanie of Monaco must have been really cold. The row of 30 coaches was so long that there was not enough room infront of the palace for all the coaches. By the time coach number 20 arrived, number 1 had already left. Most royals had the chance to take a little walk in front of the palace before leaving again.

We were all intoduced to the mayor but Blue had to admitt that as Berengaria of Navarro so was so focussed on climbing the stairs to the front door while wearing the wooden trippen without falling flat on her face, that she never even saw the man...At 16.oo hours that was a last presentation in the pekinggarden that was completely packed with people. There were even kids that had climbed the trees for a better view.

Again we were introduced to the audiance by Juliana van Stolberg and her husband Wiliam the Rich. Then after a last ride in the coaches we returned to theater De Speeldoos where we changed back to ourselfs. But not before a series of groupphoto's where made.

Al 61 kings and queens together.