Europe 2012-Day 9: 3 Million Flowers Float By

Waking up to a sunny day we thought we would try rent some bikes and ride around town. We went down stairs to find that our hotel only had 2 bikes left, so we decided to try the train station. After walking to the train station we discovered that they were also out of rental bikes, so another bust.

We decided to walk to Media Markt which is an electronics store to try buy a hair clippers as Nate’s hair was in need of a trim. Media Markt was closed as most shops are closed on Sundays, so we just headed back to the apartment for a quick lunch.

Nate’s boss while in Holland, Henk, had told us about a parade in a town called Varkenswaard which is on the outskirts of Eindhoven. It’s an annual event that has around 14 floats covered in approximately 3 million dahlias, as well as some bands.

The parade was starting around 1 PM, so we headed out around 12:30. Online it said around 30,000 people come to watch the parade every year, and it sure seemed like they were all there as we tried to find a place to park. After driving into some residential area we found some parking about a 5 min walk away. For this parade they block off the city center with fences covered in canvas and you have to pay 7.50 euros to get in and watch the parade.

As we went in there were people everywhere. It was a really hot day, between 85-90 degrees and so we wanted to find some shade. Looking around we saw a nice tree that would afford us some relief from the sun. The streets were lined with people sitting on cardboard boxes that were handed out by the newspaper company. They were all gone by the time we got there though, so we stood the whole time.

You can see the newspaper boxes and a man sitting on an umbrella with a bike seat attached.

Our wonderful shade tree in the back.

The first float we saw.

The next 3 pictures are all part of one entry

I love the carrot chandelier on this one.

Every year they have a theme for the parade and this year it was famous chefs from Holland. Each team was assigned a chef and the floats had to do with their interests. Henk (Nate’s boss) worked on one of the floats. It was actually 2 motorcycles and very impressive, they were huge!

These Motorcycles were the floats Nate's boss worked on.

A few days after the parade we found out Henk's floats got the people's choice award.

All these flowers had to be added the night before.

This entry we found very odd, creepy, and annoying. The white people on the side kept standing and sitting while making weird moaning sounds.

This float got a judges choice award. The upper part where the chefs are would pop up and go down.

After the last float went by most people scattered, but one interesting thing about this parade is that it goes around the route 2 times. We went to find something to eat and settled on a Subway. 

The church in the city square of Varkenswaard

After our early dinner we headed back to Eindhoven. As another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached there was a ton of shows on the National Geographic Channel about what had happened, and what we know now. Watching the footage from that day still brings back that pain in my gut and makes my heart sad for all those innocent people who died that day.

Later in the evening Dave, Nate and I went for a walk. The evening was nice and warm due to the hot day. We decided to go the De Kram to play some darts. Nate won both times, but the games were close.