Serviço Consular Holandesa com Bicicleta de carga

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At large events such as the World Cup soccer and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there are always people getting in trouble. It can be drugs or alcohol related but also incidents such as loosing one’s passport, a serious collision or worse, a death.

Holland Heineken House
The Netherlands Embassy prepares for that by setting up a temporary office during those events, for example in the Holland Heineken House, a place that serves as the temporary location where everything and everyone Dutch comes together (medal events, Dutch radio and TV, spaces to hang out etc).

Orange bicycles
In Brazil, the Netherlands consulate decided to invest in -wait for it- orange bicycles and two motorized vehicles. Why Orange when the flag is red-white-blue? Orange is the last name of the royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau) This goes back to the time when a German prince inherited the Principality of Orange in southern France in the 1500’s.

Since the 1980’s, Orange has basically become the Dutch national colour at sports events (I guess it is easier to deal with one colour than two (White is not a colour).

Mobility in Brazil is apparently a major problem; by using bikes, the Netherlands will try to deal with that problem as much as possible. But it is also a big city with olympic venues that are sometimes 40 kilometers apart. That would be a a bit of a time challenge to bike around. Hence there are also two motorised vehicles, one of them the iconic VW van (Above).

By painting the vehicles orange, it becomes a very eye catching tool for the Netherlands’ nation branding as well as to promote cycling.

(photos courtesy Dutch consulate in Rio)