Owner Bert Boer of Tea Time in Echten and his employees were glued to the tube today, during Queen’s funeral Elizabeth. Accompanied by thousands of attendees and millions of television viewers, the former British Queen was escorted to her final resting place in St George’s Chapel.
They could not have wished for a ‘better’ timing for the funeral in Echten, because the tea house in Drenthe is closed on Mondays. “I know that our English employees are in front of the TV, even though I have not spoken to them yet,” said Boer, who also knows that the necessary tears have been shed by a staff member. “She cried for half a day. 40 percent of the English have also done that after the death of the queen. It touches them deeply, but we are also talking about seventy years. History is being made, for now we will not experience this anymore .”
The criticism that the death of Elizabeth and its aftermath is more of a charade does not matter much to Boer. “The British love the pomp and circumstance. The royal family is on a pedestal. Here I once saw King Willem-Alexander throw toilet bowls, well that is not going to happen with King Charles. This also puts England on the map , two billion people are watching, which I understood.”
The most special thing for Boer is the rigidity of the royal family. “If it’s your mother or grandmother, you expect more emotion. But I don’t see any tears flowing. They are also trained for this, Elizabeth herself was a star in not showing emotions in the audience.”
In the coming days, Tea Time will switch back to the order of the day. The British flag, which is at half-mast, is raised again and the queen’s favorite pastry disappears from the menu after this week. “It will be again business as usual“, Boer announces. “Although I think the whole country still has a hangover feeling. The queen held it together while the land is already torn apart. In a few years we’ve had four prime ministers, what’s going to happen to England now?” he looks ahead unknowingly.