Queen invited for coffee shop visit

3 February 2004

AMSTERDAM — Groningen coffee shop De Vilegender Hollander has invited Queen Beatrix to visit the cannabis establishment to coincide with the Dutch monarch’s trip to the northern city as part of Queen’s Day celebrations on 30 April.

To justify his invitation, the owner of the coffee shop — where true to Dutch coffee ship custom members of the public can smoke and buy marijuana — said the Queen is “a modern woman of the world open to new experiences”.

“I fear that like most Dutch people she does not have a good picture of our industry and the products that we sell,” owner T. Buissink said. “We can explain to her how the weed works, what sort of people come here and how regulated the sale of cannabis is in the Netherlands.”

He also said the coffee shop visit was an appropriate addition to the type of Queen’s Day celebrations promised by Groningen Mayor Jacques Wallage, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

“It is something different from clog dancing and (games of biting) the cake,” the coffee shop owner said.

The Groningen coffee shop has not yet received a response to its official invitation to the Queen, but the Groningen Council has said it will take all suggestions into serious consideration.

The Queen visits a different Dutch city every year on the 30 April public holiday to celebrate the birthday of her mother, Princess Juliana, as crowds gather in every city, town and village for street markets and partying of all shapes and sizes.

The Groningen Queen’s Day programme will be announced two weeks before 30 April.

Subject: Dutch news