A special visitor from the Netherlands took part in the first day of the 83rd annual Tulip Time Thursday.

Dutch Ambassador to the United States Hendrik Schuwer joined the festivities in his first-ever trip to Pella. Schuwer tells KNIA/KRLS News he is honored to come to a community that shares so much tradition with Holland and celebrates his native homeland.

“It’s very nice for me to see communities with Dutch ancestry celebrating their ancestry,” he says. “For me as a Dutch ambassador, that’s a very nice way of connecting with the community and a way to see what is left of our heritage in the United States.”

The ambassador spent his time in Pella talking with leadership at Vermeer Corporation, meeting and taking photos with the Tulip Queen and Royal Court, addressing the crowd from the Tulip Time grandstand prior to the queen’s coronation, inspecting Franklin Street before scrubbers came to clean it, and took a ride through the first parade with Pella Mayor Jim Mueller. He also received a special song on his 65th birthday from the Duchesses on the Tulip Toren.

Schuwer has been a career diplomat for the Netherlands all over the world for nearly four decades. Consul General Louis Piët from Chicago joined him on his visit to the community, as well as at Governor Kim Reynolds’ office Wednesday. Hear more from the ambassador on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.