Queen Beatrix up for new challenge after countrywide tour

Visited all twelve provinces

DELFT - During her 2005-jubilee year, during which Dutch Queen Beatrix celebrated 25 years as her country’s monarch, she visited communities in all twelve provinces. Calling her royal tour ‘a great gift,’ the Queen ended the extensive schedule of visits in Schipluiden, Naaldwijk and ’t Woudt, all three located just southwest of the city of Delft, in what is known as the Westland.

Describing her experiences during the tour as a ‘unbelievable present,’ the Queen was fêted in dozens of cities, towns, villages and hamlets. Reflecting on the tour, she said to have been overwhelmed by all the attention given her. In an outpouring of admiration, all communities presented something new to her, giving her a unique and captivating outlook on each individual community and on the country as a whole. The Queen also was struck by the fact that so much had changed over the years.

Since the end of her whirlwind tour, Queen Beatrix has undergone surgery on her knee. After a speedy recovery, the Queen, her son Prince Willem Alexander and his wife Princess Màxima paid a state visit to Argentina, the home country of daughter-in-law Màxima. The party also called on a Dutch immigrant colony in Argentina. On the Queen’s 2006 itinerary also is a visit to the Dutch Antilles.

Born on January 31, 1938, Queen Beatrix in 1980 succeeded her mother Juliana, who had reigned her country since 1948. She honoured her mother by fixing the annual Queen’s Day celebrations on April 30, Juliana’s birthday. Queen-mother Juliana who took back the tile of Princess, died on March 20, 2004 while her father Prince Bernhard died on December 1 of the same year.

Then Princess Beatrix married German nobleman Claus von Amsberg in 1966 who died on October 6, 2002. The couple had three sons: Willem-Alexander, born in 1967, Friso, born in 1968 and Constantijn, born in 1969.