Delft cleans up for Juliana funeral procession

29 March 2004

AMSTERDAM — Delft Municipal Council was kept busy Monday cleaning up the route that the procession will take through city streets on Tuesday for the State funeral of Princess Juliana.

Between 75 and 100 public servants were telephoning car owners requesting them to remove their vehicles from the planned route or were removing bikes from city streets. The full route will be sealed off later on Monday.

It is expected that the municipal authority will be forced to tow away between 10 and 50 cars, which will be locked up with all of the removed bikes. The owners can pick them up later free of charge.

The city of The Hague will undergo a hasty clean-up of bikes and parked cars from the procession route on Monday night. The council is also keeping constant watch for graffiti and is ensuring that shop keepers remove advertisements.

A practice procession involving the funeral hearse was staged on Sunday night and the “secret” rehearsal venue attracted a large number of onlookers. The hearse departed from Noordeinde palace in The Hague for Delft at about 8.45pm.

Princess Juliana died in her sleep at Soestdijk Palace on 20 March and her body was taken to The Hague on 24 March. She will be interred in the royal family tomb in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on Tuesday.

There are currently 44 members of the royal family interred in the tomb and the body of Princess Juliana has been embalmed according to tradition.

Meanwhile, the Government Information Service RVD has confirmed that her husband, 92-year-old Prince Bernhard, will be fit enough to attend the funeral. It was earlier reported that the deeply affected prince might miss the funeral due to ill health.

Eight Friesian horses will lead the funeral hearse — which will be coloured in purple and white — with the body of the former queen from The Hague to Delft. Military police, the KLPD national police force and the army will provide honorary escorts.

Subject: Dutch news