Paleis Soestdijk

This is the palace of our old Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard in Soestdijk. Her grandmother Queen Emma used to live there and Juliana loved her very much and visited her often. When she died in 1934 the palace was empty for a while until 1937. Queen Juliana and her husband went to live there after their marriage and they have lived their until they both died in 2004.
It is not yet clear what to do with the palace and in the meantime it is opened for public visits.
It is very special to walk in the palace and the garden and to see the places you remember of photo's and movies. The royal family used to stand on the "bordes" (steps) when Queen Juliana had her birthday at April 30 and wave to the people that came to wish her happy birthday. I always thought it was a huge step but in reality it was very small. Unfortunately it was not allowed to take photo's inside the palace.
In the garden is a statue of the royal couple waving.

The backside with the beautiful pond where our crownprince Willem-Alexander asked his Argentine girlfriend Maxima to marry him. It was winter and the water was frozen, he kneeled on the ice for her and she said with her teeth chatter of the cold "yes".