The Netherlands celebrated what was thought to be the sunniest ever Queen’s Day on Monday, with few problems reported. Some 500,000 took to the streets in Amsterdam for the celebrations, up by over 150,000 on last year.

Dutch Rail (NS) said it brought 215,000 people to the capital without problems. The busiest spot of the day was the Museumplein where some 300,000 were crammed together for a concert organised by Radio 538.
In total, police made 100 arrests, the same as on a normal weekend. Spot checks on boats on the city’s busy waterways led to 40 people being fined, mainly for being drunk in control of a boat.
In one incident, someone who grabbed hold of an electric car in an effort to stop themselves falling into the Prinsengracht pulled the car in as well, eye witnesses said.
Queen Beatrix and her family were in Woudrichem (Brabant) and Den Bosch, where 60,000 people turned out to meet them. Princess Máxima, still recovering from the birth of her third daughter, did not take part in public celebrations this year.
KPN’s mobile phone network was overstretched for part of the day, making it impossible to make calls or send text messages.
The weather bureau KNMI said it expected the 14 hours of sunshine to break weather records; the most sunny Queen’s Day to date was in 1999. And with the temperature hovering around 20 degrees, it was the eighth-warmest Queen’s Day.