Last Updated on 2 May 2007

Monday was Queen’s Day here in the Netherlands… a national holiday… We all get the day off to party, drink, and celebrate. (if you’re into that kinda thing).

I mentioned that you’re allow to sell things without paying taxes… So people have created very imaginative games of skill to pay and play…

Here are a few highlights…

Just like any carnival-style game… they all sound and look deceptively easy, but are not!

Egg Hurling
Egg Chucking Throw an egg at the guy for €1 per egg. (Or 6 eggs for €5). That’s it. A fun looking and gooey game. We saw several of these throughout the city.

Wooden Shoe Egg Toss
Wooden Egg Toss A very Dutch appropriate game… For a price you got a few tries to toss the wooden egg into the wooden shoe. Very challenging.

Quick Draw – Rod Grab
Lucky Leuke “Are you faster than Lucky Luke?” the sign challenges… If you think you can move as fast as the Dutch cartoon character Lucky Luke can draw his guns, you may try to catch the wooden rods as they fall from overhead. You win if you could catch three of them before they fell to the ground. A very clever device allowed the operator in the rear of the machine to pull a string to release the different rods.

Bottle Hoop Challenge
Bottle Ring You have 30-seconds to use a long pole with a string and hoop attached to get the hoop over the neck of the bottle. Again, how hard could this be? But with long poles… long string… light wooden rings… and wind… These kids were cleaning up! And, these kids were very organized. They had kids who cheered… A timer… Whistles… all quite official!

and my favorite…

Knak de Worst
Knak de Worst Not only an imaginative game, but also cleverly named. For €1 you were given three tries to smash a hotdog with a small mallet as it slides out the orange chute.

The host would say… “Ready… Go!” and drop the wiener down the tube. Your job was to watch for it as it came sliding out and knock it. Sounds pretty easy, huh? It’s basically impossible! (The host of this game admitted he’s never been able to do it!)

These novel games would make great additions to a church carnival or perhaps even an Office Olympics!