Saturday, March 13, 2010

Queen Juliana, the Netherlands

This is a story for my Blanket Head buddy who thinks my service time focused only on intoxication and low pursuits.

The Netherlands (Holland) in the 1960’s was a peaceful place. This is how a friend and I happened to speak to Queen Juliana.

We were stationed in Germany. I had an old beater English Ford that we took on leave with the intention of visiting Holland and Denmark. We traveled back roads and, being highly trained pathfinders, managed to get completely lost. We came across a huge house, maybe a palace, and stopped along side the road. We expected such a structure would be on our map. As we sat there, two ladies on bicycles rode up to our car and asked if we needed help. We explained we had been lost but thought we now knew our location. The ladies confirmed we were correct and peddled on up the road. Behind them were four very large men on bicycles. Three passed us and one stopped.

About this time, it dawned on my travel partner we had just spoken to someone important. The gentleman on the bicycle gave confirmation. He told us one of the ladies was the Queen. He also looked at our papers and identification cards. We didn’t argue.

We watched the group continue up the road and then turn into an entrance. What gracious people the Dutch are. The Netherlands was always my favorite leave or pass destination.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Heh- Yep, one NEVER knows who they are liable to cross paths with! Reminds me of the Beer Jug runs in the 70's and 80's to Holland... but that's NOT a story for a blog post :-)

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Remember the Navy coming into Bremerhaven while we were guarding payrolls (paid in cash back in the day). First two nights lots of sailors learning the laxative effects of German Beer. Third night only the tough chiefs that had seen it all and drank it all everywhere in the world. That group could party!