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December 9th, 2004  Filing past the coffin in the Palace Noordeinde, of course. Got me a compliment from the royal household, this time (I arrived in long black with hat, took that off upon entering the front room of the Chapelle Ardente, fell to my busted left knee in front of the coffin, and before I rose, whispered "Vielen dank" - whereupon, as I left the Palace, a fiftysome gentleman from the royal household accosted me and said "I'd like to compliment you for the utterly respectful way in which you saluted the prince - we're no longer used to that, you see"; I answered "Minimal, Sir, minimal" and "Unfortunately, I myself have gotten used to it by now, let's hope it shall be a while again, now").
Most moving (apart from, as with the passing of Juliana, the halfmast flags at all foreign embassies; at the time, I thought this was a particularly fine gesture on the part of our arch enemy, at the Brazilian embassy): the wreaths of, respectively, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and the Federal Chancellor of Germany. |
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