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23 March 2004
AMSTERDAM — The carriage that will take the body of Princess Juliana to her final resting place will be decked in the colours purple and white and is the same carriage used for the October 2002 funeral of Prince Claus.
The white coaches used to take Juliana’s parents — Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik — to their final resting place no longer exist or are longer suitable. Juliana had requested before her death that the funeral colour be white.
The funeral will take place according to the former queen’s wishes. This means that clothing requests have been issued: women must wear subdued colours with an accent on white and men must wear a dark suit with a dark tie.
Juliana’s close family will pay their final respects to the deceased 94-year-old on Tuesday and her body will be taken from the Soestdijk Palace at 11am on Wednesday to Palace Noordeinde in The Hague.
Juliana had lived in Soestdijk since her 1937 marriage to Prince Bernhard. She died in her sleep on Saturday morning and will be interred in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on 30 March.
Queen Beatrix and her three sisters will accompany Juliana’s body to The Hague on Wednesday, where their mother was born on 30 April 1909. Juliana will then be laid out in a special chapel in the palace, where dignitaries will pay their last respects to her on Wednesday.
The Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament will commemorate her life in a joint sitting at 12.45pm on Wednesday. Ministers and state secretaries will be present at the joint sitting and the politicians will then depart for Palace Noordeinde.
Members of the public can pay their last respects to the much-loved former queen from Thursday through until Sunday (25-28 March). The chapel will be open from 9am to 10pm at night.
The Hague’s public transport company, HTM, will operate a special bus route from Thursday to Sunday to take people to and from Central Station and Noordeinde. HTM will also operate a bus to transport people in wheelchairs.
The free buses will be numbered 0 and marked Extra Dienst (Extra Service).
Public news service NOS will broadcast live the transportation of Princess Juliana’s body from Soestdijk to Noordeinde Palace from 10.45am to 2.30pm on Nederland 2.
[Copyright Expatica News 2004]
Subject: Dutch news