They may still be surprised abroad, of course our royals cycle. A lot and even gladly, during regional visits and official moments near the palace, but also privately.
In The Hague you really don’t have to look up when you see Willem-Alexander or Máxima at the traffic light. And the princesses, of course. We are also completely used to it from our royals, because we have had a cycling monarchy since Queen Wilhelmina. But did you know that this was not without a struggle?
a veto
If she wanted to, Queen Wilhelmina was not allowed by her ministers on a bicycle. She bought a bicycle after attending a cycling race in Vienna in 1897, but was vetoed upon returning home.
Out The champion of that year (yes, really): “Queen Wilhelmina continued to insist that cycling is a healthy relaxation and mentioned a number of high women who already cycle. Then the Prime Minister said: ‘This may be true, but none of those women have the responsibility for the welfare of so many. We must kindly request Majesty to refrain from her intention (to cycle, ed.), even though the danger in cycling is very small.”
Iconic tandem
She reportedly adhered to it for 35 years. Then she was suddenly spotted on a bicycle in Katwijk. After that, the gate of the dam was closed. Princess and later Queen Juliana started cycling and already lit her fiancé Prince Bernhard in 1936. When the photographer rented a tandem for the couple for a photo session in the garden of Noordeinde Palace, Bernhard wanted to cycle away with it afterwards. A nice present, he thought.
The photos became so iconic that the bicycle has since become an integral part of the Orange photo sessions. Beatrix and Claus once posed on a tandem and even dragged their three sons along.
Willem-Alexander and Máxima were photographed complete with cargo bikes and child seats. And when Amalia, Alexia and Ariane first cycled to high school, Dad was ready to take a picture.
Posing with the Queen
That is also very normal in the Dutch royal family: ever since Princess Beatrix, the first Orange who went to a normal, out-of-palace primary school, princes and princesses cycle through all kinds of weather (and of course followed by security guards) to school themselves.
By bike
We are probably the only country in the world where a statue of our former queen is on a bicycle: you can pose next to Beatrix while cycling on the Posbank. And with a nice cycling route of about 10 minutes along the Haagse Bos, you just know that Willem-Alexander regularly cycles from Huis ten Bosch to his work palace Noordeinde.
Newcomers from countries where there is less cycling (Prince Bernhard, Prince Claus and Máxima) should quickly accept it and also learn to cycle, because that is about the first question that the Dutch press asks in such a case. Although Máxima (who indeed got that question very quickly in 2001) already learned to cycle in Argentina.
‘I’m not from another planet’
In Buenos Aires there wasn’t much opportunity to get on a bike (she first went to school by bus and later would have gone to work by motorcycle to cope with the parking and traffic jams of such a huge city), she did enjoy mountain biking at the family’s country house in Bariloche.
When she received a Gazelle as an engagement gift in September 2001 and was asked ‘if she could do it yet’ she said characteristically fervently: “Yeah, guess what, I’m not from another planet! Of course I can cycle.” Fortunately, because a week later she went to Utrecht with her prince, an official visit complete with a bike ride.
She has to be near Arnhem this Thursday, otherwise she would probably also cycle to work.
