Go Oranje!

Have I ever mentioned that orange is the color of the Netherlands?  Did you perhaps suppose the colors would be red, white, and blue like their flag?

Certainly red, white, and blue are national colors, but orange is truly Dutch.  Why orange you say?  Well, it all goes back to the Royal Dutch Family.  Their lineage comes from the House of Oranje-Nassau.  The House of Orange, isn't that nice?  Therefore, the color orange symbolizes not only the royal roots of the country, but also a broader pride in being Dutch.  Queen's Day (April 30) will be a full-on display of the color orange, with probably every person in the country sporting it.  The Dutch also wear orange to their national football matches.  Which leads me to last Friday.

Todd attended the Netherlands vs. Estonia World Cup qualifying match in Amsterdam along with some colleagues from the Den Haag office.  Prior to the match, I snapped this photo of two fans heading into the arena.  Sorry for the blurriness.

Todd had a fun time at the match, and sported his Netherlands jersey as well.  The Netherlands ended up winning 3-0.  Here's a couple of photos Todd snapped at the match:

An interesting note about the match is that they did not sell any alcohol.  This is because matches like this can become heated very quickly, so they do that for the safety of everyone.  Not a bad idea I suppose. 

While Todd was at the match, a fellow expat wife and I, Mindy, got to hang out.  Our original plan was to head into the center of Amsterdam for a fun dinner somewhere, but we got a late start, and it was extremely cold and windy.  Instead, we found dinner at a restaurant right next to the stadium and enjoyed being warm.  After the match we met up with the crew for drinks to celebrate the victory.  The hour and a half drive home at 1am wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but overall the night was great!  Always fun to catch up with fellow expats!

This may be my last post for a little bit, folks.  Todd's parents are arriving on Friday morning and will be staying for 10 days.  We are very excited for them to get here!  It is the first time in Europe for each of them, so I can't wait to show them around. On the agenda for the week is Amsterdam, Paris, the Champagne region of France, along with lots of time in Eindhoven and nearby.  It should be a packed week, and I will be back afterwards with multiple photo-centric posts.  Until then, think warm!  I am so ready for spring!