Carnival - Dutch Style

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A few weeks ago, Rob and I celebated Carnival. No, we did not go to Rio, or to New Orleans. They celbrate a uniquley Dutch variant of Carnival here. To me, it is a is a mixture of New Year's Rose Bowl Parade, Haloween and Rio Carnival. We were given a great guided tour and parade commentary by Rob's friends.



As the origins of Carnival are Catholic, it is mainly celbrated in the Catholic southern part of the Netherlands. Entire cities shut down between Saturday and Tuesday for a 3-4 day celebration.



THe bars fill each evening people in colorful, and often silly costumes. Its kind of like haloween, but the emphasis is much more on very colorful and silly rather than scary or gory. Some work for months on beautiful, but very bright, costumes and elaborate face masks. Others just put on a funny had or bright, colorful shirts. I saw one guy with a flower pot, complete with flower, tied to his head.



It is also kind of like the Rose Bowl parade. Each city holds a parade with floats and music. Within that city, local neighboords compete with each other for the best float. The town even changes its name during Carnival! Instead of flowers, the floats are made of paper mache, and mounted on truck beds and pulled by tractors. Each float is in psychadelic colors, and playing loud discotech music. Unlike the Rose Bowl, there are entries from as small as 1-2 guys, to the huge floats that take a over 100 people months to work on.

Bonjour from Paris

A little over a year ago, on February 19th, many of you were there to celebrate our wedding with us in Malibu in the US. We decided the best way to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of that magical day could best be done in the city of romance, Paris.

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Last weekend we took a 3 hour bullet train from Rotterdam to Paris. Rob was fascinated with the speeds it reached and the technical workings. I was loving that I only live 3 hours away from Paris!!

Bullet train to Paris


After checking into our hotel, we took a bus tour of the city to get a general overview. We saw the wide, stately avenues Paris so famous for, lined with trees and beautiful white marble buildings. We saw ornate baroque buildings like the Paris Music Academy, the posh Champs De Elyses, and medieval Paris districts like Notre Dam. We then went to Notre Dam cathedral, and underground roman ruins found beneath the church.

Academy of Music


On Friday, we visited Versailles, the incredibly ornate palace built in the 18th century by Louis 14th, the “Sun King”. This was the height of sophistication and decadence in 17th century Europe, each room gilded, ornately painted, with priceless furniture and decorations. The king even had 2 opera halls, and a mile long canal dug in the gardens for his summer parties!

Laurie in King’s Bedroom at Versailles


obligatory Eiffel Tower pic (required for a Paris blog!)


After we returned from Versailles, Rob and I took a sunset boat cruise down the Seine river. We saw the famous old sites in the glow of the setting sun, like Notre Dam. After the cruise, we walked hand in hand along the Eiffel Tower park while the tower flickered with a light show. We ate a delicious Parisan dinner in a small café along the way – the French really know how to cook!



On Saturday, we visited Rob’s Dutch friend Wouter, along with his french wife Patricia and they’re 2 year old Emeric. They took us for a very enjoyable trip to the medieval city of Provins. This was like stepping into the pages of Ivanhoe – the town is surrounded by medieval wall, and the narrow streets are lined with old stone and wooden Shakespeare-like buildings. We ate delicious crepes and saw the town museum about life in the Middle Ages (loved every minute of it!!). We then went back to Wouter’s house for an evening of delicious french cuisine and warm hospitality.



On our last day in France, we went to see the famous “Lady and Unicorn Tapestries”. The Lady & Unicorn tapestries are a series of 16th century tapestries portraying a lady and unicorn - one of the few, and best preserved, of an entire series of tapestries. We got a copy of “Love” themed tapestry when Rob proposed 2 summers ago in Belgium. For the wedding anniversary, we say the real deal!