Flower Parade

Trip Start Apr 15, 2003
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Flag of Netherlands  ,
Sunday, September 7, 2008

Hi everybody,
After the Belgian Beer Weekend, we went to Zundert, just before the Belgium border in the Netherlands, for their annual flower parade. Our friends, Rich and Joey, had learned about this in their travels and suggested that we go. The day started with heavy rain, but this is a parade that we were happy to have seen. Zundert is a very small town and we suspect that very few Americans have been here or have seen this parade. What an amazing find!

The parade consists of floats more than 2 stories high and at least 2 truck beds long, all covered in flowers. The floats are powered by people pushing. They have amazing designs and even have an audio component. One float, of a statue covered in pigeons, cooed. Another, of a pack of wolves, growled. The largest and most exuberant float was accompanied by an African drum corp and also contained 5 stories of drummers! One float was led by a multi-story puppet, controlled by two puppeteers on top while another was automated with animals turning their heads and popping up on lifts to check for danger. The floats were beautiful and complex. Far more than we had expected! Between the floats were marching bands and flag corps.

We were lucky that the rain mostly stopped for the parade and the day was simply drizzly and grey. Because of the weather we didn't really explore the other festivities in the town, but there was the normal fair food, small rides for children, and other activities that we could see. This town is also the birthplace of Vincent van Gogh, but we didn't see any attractions related to him.

Check out the pictures in the photo gallery and I'm sure you'll agree this is quite an elaborate flower parade. On the parade website (click on the small British flag on the left for English) you can see overhead shots of the floats which give the full perspective of each one, as well as read about the history of the parade itself. To see the 2008 floats, click on "parade". The first page shows last year's floats.

Enjoy the photos!

Melanie and Chris

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001 Flamingos 001 Flamingos 002 Flamingos 002 Flamingos 003 Flamingo detail 003 Flamingo detail 004 Flamingo detail 004 Flamingo detail
005 People Power 005 People Power 006 haunted house 006 haunted house 007 haunted float 007 haunted float 008 scary merry-go-round with screaming children 008 scary merry-go-round with screaming children
009 maybe a little too scary? 009 maybe a little too scary? 010 marching band 010 marching band 011 giant tuk tuk 011 giant tuk tuk 012 first tuk tuk 012 first tuk tuk
013 tuk tuk passenger 013 tuk tuk passenger 014 second tuk tuk 014 second tuk tuk 015 steering and pushing from below 015 steering and pushing from below 016 tuk tuk passenger 016 tuk tuk passenger
017 detail on back of tuk tuk 017 detail on back of tuk tuk 018 detail on back of other tuk tuk 018 detail on back of other tuk tuk 019 close up 019 close up 020 dancing farmers - yes it's all flower covered! 020 dancing farmers - yes it's all flower covered!
021 dancing farmers 021 dancing farmers 022 dancing farmers 022 dancing farmers 023 king of the jungle 023 king of the jungle 024 rest of the jungle 024 rest of the jungle
025 more jungle 025 more jungle 026 batter up! 026 batter up! 027 baseball game 027 baseball game 028 masks 028 masks
029 masks 029 masks 030 sleeping beauty 030 sleeping beauty 031 Mel with purple pigeons 031 Mel with purple pigeons 032 purple pigeon detail 032 purple pigeon detail
033 purple pigeon detail 033 purple pigeon detail 034 statue with pigeons 034 statue with pigeons 035 marching band 035 marching band 036 hear all 036 hear all
037 hear all, see all 037 hear all, see all 038 see all 038 see all 039 monkey colony 039 monkey colony 040 marching band 040 marching band
041 too esoteric for us... 041 too esoteric for us... 042 esoteric 042 esoteric 043 metropolis 043 metropolis 044 Mel in front of metroplis 044 Mel in front of metroplis
045 metropolis 045 metropolis 046 metropolis 046 metropolis 047 caged animals 047 caged animals 048 these cages swing! 048 these cages swing!
049 caged animals 049 caged animals 050 another marching band 050 another marching band 051 spectators 051 spectators 052 fear of water 052 fear of water
053 waves and fear 053 waves and fear 054 foot power 054 foot power 055 flower detail 055 flower detail 056 wolves through the water 056 wolves through the water
057 pack of wolves 057 pack of wolves 058 pack of wolves 058 pack of wolves 059 wolf detail - notice the teeth and claws 059 wolf detail - notice the teeth and claws 060 wolf detail -those eyes! 060 wolf detail -those eyes!
061 wolf detail 061 wolf detail 062 can you tell we liked the wolves? 062 can you tell we liked the wolves? 063 more wolves 063 more wolves 064 marching band 064 marching band
065 nuts and bolts 065 nuts and bolts 066 each flower is nailed in 066 each flower is nailed in 067 Alert! 067 Alert! 068 The heads of these guys rotated 068 The heads of these guys rotated
069 and others elevated up and down 069 and others elevated up and down 070 always on the lookout 070 always on the lookout 071 alert 071 alert 072 flag corps 072 flag corps
073 flag girl 073 flag girl 074 grumpy flag girl (it was cold) 074 grumpy flag girl (it was cold) 075 another marching band 075 another marching band 076 dancers 076 dancers
077 drum band with samba float 077 drum band with samba float 078 giant puppet 078 giant puppet 079 giant puppet 079 giant puppet 080 see the puppeteer? 080 see the puppeteer?
081 four stories of drummers 081 four stories of drummers 082 082 083 back of the float 083 back of the float 084 end of the parade 084 end of the parade
085 vegetable cart (later along the route) 085 vegetable cart (later along the route) 086 086 087 087 088 088
089 089 090 strawberry stand 090 strawberry stand 090 spectators 090 spectators 090 anticipation! 090 anticipation!
090 marching band 090 marching band 091 091 092 band and float 092 band and float 093 still pushing! 093 still pushing!
094 dancing between the buildings 094 dancing between the buildings 095 parade route down narrow street 095 parade route down narrow street 096 between the buildings 096 between the buildings 097 made it through! 097 made it through!
098 embryo 098 embryo 099 speak no evil 099 speak no evil 100 shhhhh 100 shhhhh 101 Grrrrrrr 101 Grrrrrrr
102 102 103 103 107 Dutch fair food - smoked eel 107 Dutch fair food - smoked eel
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Comments

florinbudu
florinbudu on Oct 29, 2008 at 04:41PM

we need some help :)
hello guys. i've read allmost everything you've posted so far and it was very interesting and helpfull. my girlfriend and I we're planning to come in The Nederlands next year to study and work and we were wondering what would be your suggestions for someone that wants to move in that country... what are steps for us to follow? we spent one month in Utrecht and Amsterdam this year..so we know severall things about the canals, bikes, universities, prices, weather, beer and cofeeshops..:) but we still have some questions... is it ok for us to take our car with us? what about our pet? is it easy to find an appartment to rent, or a workplace for young guys that understand dutch language? we appreciate any kind of advice...thank you!

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