The King’s day: When the sober Dutch go all-out

Kings’s Day. A special day in the Netherlands. It’s the King’s birthday, celebrated in a very special way. Since I can remember, every monarch the Netherlands have had during my time celebrated it in his or her own way. But Queen Juliana, Queen Beatrix and King Willem-Alexander have one thing in common: their birthday had…

An Easter of hope on Madeira. Corona seems under control

It’s Easter. A big thing in Portugal and on Madeira. People accept the extra measures, some grudgingly, but let’s be honest: it seems to work. Madeira seems to have Corona under control. In the week running up to Easter there were hardly any new infections, and the ones there were concerned people who had come…

Madeira quarantine: 3 weeks now, but life goes on…

The third full week of the Madeira quarantine is now behind us. The restrictions continue to be firmly in place: social isolation, no travelling unless for shopping, going to the bank or travelling for medical purposes and only leaving your home for physical exercise or walking your dog. Nothing really happens, we follow the developments…

War and peace or a day on locked down Madeira: halfway through the first week.

Some readers like my articles. I like writing them. So here goes again. In these times between war and peace nothing much happens, it is down to the mundane things that determine daily life. Strangely, there is a veil of normalcy that covers the abnormality of everything going on. Since we can’t really go out…

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