All from the Royal Palace in A’dam, which we showed you once before when we’d just returned from the US and had no backlog of remotely legit “royal-ish” stuff to share with you. I’ve now stocked up on royal stuff from Berlin as well as a few different corners of NL so I can just share all these overly-impressive and imposing doorways, sitting rooms, waiting rooms, etc. etc. all in one big post. Fascinating are all the coats of arms in the gallery below, with SPQA at the top. (As in, Senate & People of the City of Amsterdam in direct imitation of classical Rome’s SPQR.) I’d never noticed that before, but have since seen the same thing on a bridge or two around town. One thing I will say about constitutional monarchies such as this one: they allow the State (by which int’l law means Nation State, not New Jersey or Alaska) itself to retain a certain dignity that rises above the politics of the moment. IMHO the US has lately tended to test the value of a single person being both head of state and head of government, often with disconcerting results when it comes to the dignity of the State itself…