Posted in Culture, Travel

Peru Episode 6 – Arequipa

Our last stop in Peru was in its second largest city – Arequipa.

We traveled there from Puno by bus, not a very pleasant experience for me.  We had bought VIP Seats, since they were not a lot more expensive than the regular seats on the tourist bus.  Unfortunately, the seats were at the lower level of the double-decker bus, with very limited view outside the bus, and none towards the front.  I can get car sick if I cannot see outside.  What was worse, most of the drive was at night, going up and down mountain passes, and there was not much to see anyway!  The road turned a lot too.  So I just traveled with my eyes closed most of the trip.

We arrived at Arequipa very late and went to bed immediately after a quick dinner – we did not see much of the city on the first evening but discovered that we had found a really nice hotel, not far from the Plaza de Armas, or the main square of the city.

The following day, we woke up to a gorgeous day with sunshine and not too hot.  Arequipa is much lower than where we had been so far, only 2400 m above sea level, but it is surrounded by 5000+m mountains covered in snow.

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We were amazed by the very intricate decoration of the front door of this church compared to the rest of the wall.  We had not seen that before in Peru for such a simple neighborhood church.  This is the Church de la Compania – right next to the Plaza de Armas, the main square of the city.

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We visited the Convent of Santa Catalina.  This is a very large convent, or a small city within the city.  There are streets with ‘private’ apartments for people who wanted to get away from the every day life, but did not necessarily want to fully embrace the life of a nun.

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The central square of the Monasterio is very colorful!

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We had an excellent guide who walked us though the convent for several hours.  We walked down several small alleys like this one.

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Continue reading “Peru Episode 6 – Arequipa”

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Peru Episode 5 – Sillustani and Colca Canyon

Welcome to another installment of our (not so) recent trip to Peru.  Things keep getting i the way of my finishing this, but I am getting there.

I am now several other trips behind, but will catch up eventually, I guess.

We left you on a small island in Lake Titicaca and this episode actually starts still on the island, the morning after the glorious sunset which closed the last episode.  Before the boat brought us back to Puno, we had a chance to walk around the island some more and see more animals.

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The Alpacas are still there, still as cute as the day before and not afraid of us at all.

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There is bird life as well – I am not sure what this is, but I thought it had a very colorful head.

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This one had just collected a seed and was probably wondering if I was about to steal it.

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Rabbits too…

As we were waiting for the ferry to take us back to Puno, I noticed water birds that had a very strange behavior.  Every so often, one or more of them would start splashing around like crazy.  At first I was not quite sure what was going on, so I started to take pictures.

PeruBlog204 Continue reading “Peru Episode 5 – Sillustani and Colca Canyon”

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Peru Episode 4: Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca

Here we are again.  Preparation for this one has taken less time that the last episode as I already had most photos selected, and the weather in Belgium has been much worse than earlier, giving me more indoor time.  However, much travel around Christmas, New Year and later in January delayed again final publication, so this one too is late!

I left you in suspense right at the entrance to the ruins of Machu Picchu, the entrance that is used only by those who have completed the Inca Trail.  Out of 2000 visitors allowed per day to enter Machu Picchu, less than 150 come in this way.

And here is the view that was immediately offered to us.

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We are still quite a long way from the main portions of the ruins and you can see the road that leads to the main entrance – several switch-backs that end near a building with green roof that blends quit well into the scenery.  After coming down, we have to take the “typical” photo from a slab that overlooks perfectly the whole site.  It is mid-afternoon and we are tired and dirty and will have a whole day in the ruins tomorrow so we go to our hotel, right at the main entrance, and relax for the evening.

 

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The next morning, Bee and I are up early in order to catch the sunrise on the ruins.  We wait in line with about 200 other people just before opening at 6AM.  Most of them have had to climb up from Agua Caliente, where most hotels are located.  The first bus to make the ascent arrives just after 6AM and therefore if you want to make it in early, you need to climb.  We were privileged as all we had to do was walk 100 m from our hotel to the entrance.

Unfortunately, the weather is not the best and the ruins are covered in clouds as we get to the vantage point we had selected the day before.

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We are not alone! The llamas have been on their own for the whole night and have taken over the place, and now they reluctantly have to leave room for the tourists.  They appear to be quite used to people.

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I am again able to take pictures close up.  The clouds are still dense and therefore I need to pass the time.

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We have a good spot, up on top of the ruins with a plunging view.  We have such a good spot that there is this lady who is doing everything she can to take it from us… for the hour that we were there, she moved her tripod 5-6 times, constantly looking at me with this accusing look.  She has Nikon, so I felt no obligation to share my spot, until I was done with my photos.

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The sun came up behind the clouds – so no spectacular sunrise and I finally let the lady have the spot she wanted for her tripod.  Bee and I went exploring briefly before breakfast and before the hordes of other tourists arrived.

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We found a two-floor dwelling.  It does not look like there was room for a staircase inside, so probably one had to go outside to get to the top floor.

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Yes, you are sseing things correctly – Bee is floating up in the air in this photo.  When I took her photo, I unfortunately cut off her legs, and therefore when I added her to the montage of the house, the legs did not appear – sorry! I still think it was worth having her in the picture.

We stopped at the Temple of the Condor.  If you look carefully, the triangular rock on the bottom of the temple has been carved to look like a condor, with a small head closest to the camera.

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Here is a closeup of that condor.

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We came back to our room just before breakfast only to find a bird that was very much angry at his reflection in the mirror.  It kept flying into it and pecking at the mirror.

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We went back into the ruins after breakfast as we had a guided tour.  Here you can see the clear difference between the high class building, such as the Temple to the Moon above and the normal buildings such as the granary in the foreground.  They spent a lot more time and effort getting the stones to fit just right for the important buildings.

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I call this the “Parade Grounds” even though that is clearly not what it was for.  My understanding is that archaeologists are not quite sure themselves what this space was intended to be used for.  There are several theories.

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Quite a nice bird hidden among the branches.

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El Templo de las tres Ventanas – the temple with three windows.  Absolutely stunning brick-work.

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There was a maintenance crew busy on one of the temples.  We were impressed with the safety features that they used to do this work.  The crew seemed to be quite well organised, and I guess I was not expecting this.

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The Osservatorio Astronomico, or Observatory – where the local Inca priests would look at the stars and planets to determine the season and if any serious event was about to happen.  It is told that the Incas could predict Solar Eclipses and the arrival of comets.  It probably took many years of observations to get there.

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As I have shown before, we ran into several groups of young children, sometimes very young, hard at work practicing dances.  Here is a group in Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu.  We had a few minutes to kill before the train that would take us back to Ollantaytambo and eventually back to Cuzco – the Inca trail and Machu Picchu adventure is over.

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On to the next one! Very early the next day, we boarded one of the highest train in the world.  The train that goes from Cuzco to Puno actually crosses a pass at over 4300 meters above sea level.

This is a luxurious train for tourists only.  The bus is much quicker, but a lot less glamorous.  There is an observation deck at the back of the train.

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and a full service bar

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which is used for some entertainment during the long (8-hour long) trip.  These guys were actually pretty good and at times, the four of them would play 8 different instruments!

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We stopped in La Raya, the top of the line at 4313 m.  An opportunity to stretch our legs, and buy goodies offered to us.

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Desolate scenery – there is quite a bit of snow here in winter, I was told.  Today, it is quite warm.

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There are Incas with a baby Alpaca, charging for having your picture taken with them.

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Back in the train, there is another musical session with the band.

They also had a fashion show and dancing girls.

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We arrived at the hotel just after sunset – this is the view from our hotel room.  Lake Titicaca is right there.

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The next day, we went to visit the “floating Islands” that Lake Titicaca is so famous for.  I was very surprised to find out that these islands have only existed for a little over 80 years! Before that, families would live on rafts and join together in this way.  However, the rafts needed to be re-built every 6-8 months and this was a lot of work.  The islands (there are over 80 islands in this area and each island is essentially one family) last 2-3 years and therefore there is less work than before.

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They still build boats to move from one island to the next – this is one recent example.  They are manually operated with long oars.  We had the opportunity to go on a ride, but declines as it was way (WAY!) too touristy for us.

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We enjoyed spending more time with the local Uros (the indigenous people who occupy these islands) such as this old gentlemen who demonstrated to us how they build these islands.  The actual flotation devices are the roots of the local reeds which they pull from the bottom of the lake (which is not very deep in this area).  Dried reeds are used as the top platform, and makes for a very bouncy support.  I am sure these guys never have knee problems!

The Uros are a very old people, actually pre-dating the Incas.  Most of them live in Peru, but some are still located on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.

Each member of a group living on an island is responsible for the maintenance of his section of that island.  Our friendly instructor explained that there are severe penalties against those not carrying their own weight, including one that involves a very large saw and actually a complete separation of the offending party from the rest of the island – they are cast adrift to be on their own!

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Houses are simple structures, usually just one room.  Most of them do have televisions, not flat screen TVs yet.  I am not sure what is the purpose for the tire on the roof, but in this case, it supported a very nice parrot.

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The gate at the entrance to the main square of the island we visited.  All houses are built around the main square.

The community is essentially self-sustaining.  There are special islands with schools up to secondary school and some islands have restaurants and bars for entertainment (probably mostly for tourists again).

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We were able to get onto an elevated platform (this was scarier than I thought at first as the platform was not very stable and built on nonexistent foundation on top of floating and unstable reeds).  However, this did provide a remarkable general view of some of the area where these islands are built.  There are two main sections, with a wide canal between these where you can see a motor boat.  Each section is made up of multiple small islands that are very close to each other, but still separated – if you look at the two yellow buildings to the left of the picture, there is probably a separation (narrow channel) between those two houses.  There is also a channel in the foreground of the picture so we are looking here at the island next door to the one we are standing on.

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After the floating islands we continued our crossing of the lake towards a more permanent island, seeing local fishermen on the way.

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We stopped in Taquile where there are other local people known as the Taquilenos – they speak Quechua, while the Uros speak Uro or Pukina.  This was obviously a VIP  – I saw him later in deep business-like conversation with local people.

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Local weaver

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And of course, a dance troupe for the tourists.  Clearly not what we were most interested in.  Before that, we had a demonstration of how they can make soap from a local herb.  Remarkably, we had a demonstration by a local aboriginal near Perth Australia in January 2016 that looked eerily similar!

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Taquile is an agricultural island with many terraces where different foods can be grown.  There is no lack of water, even though it does not rain very often.

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We spent our next night on a small private island near the Bolivian border, but still on the Peruvian portion of the lake, so I cannot claim that I have visited Bolivia.  The only thing on the island called Isla Suasi is the hotel where we are staying.

There are no inhabitants, but there are Alpacas that do not appear to be very afraid of humans.

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This one Alpaca seemed to really like the purple flowers in this one bush

 

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Who can resist that!

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We went to the top of the island, at 4100 m altitude, to watch the sunset.  The walk was not very long, only about 2 km, and we only climbed 200 m, but we were still out of breath at the top.  I took several pictures while the sun was coming down.

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As always at this latitude, once the sun is down, dark arrives very fast.  We had to hurry to get back to the hotel, but still had time for this picture.  Bee was trying to distract the Alpaca so that I could get a profile shot, and it worked.

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The next day, we will be leaving the island and soon will be leaving Lake Titicaca for Arequipa.  That will be the subject of the next episode as I have not yet worked on those photos and do not want to delay further the publication of this one.

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Posted in Culture, Travel

Peru Episode 3: The Inca Trail

Sorry for the long delay in getting this episode out.  I think I have a good excuse, actually two or three good ones!

Since I completed Episode 2, I moved, helped my girlfriend to move into our new house and then we got married!

So Sue Me!

Here we go for the next installment of the trip in Peru.  All we did earlier, was just preparation for one of the highlights of the trip, the Inca Trail – this is a five day hike (we did one extra day outside the official trail) in the mountains, across two high passes (4200 and 3900 meters). We started from a place called KM77 with just a few houses and a rare bridge across the Rio Vilcanota; the end point of the trail is, of course, the ruins of Machu-Picchu through the Gates of the Sun.

Our first night was in luxurious accommodations.  We did not have to carry tents and sleeping bags yet, so there were sturdy tents with a cover to keep the sun out.  This is a permanent campground managed by Wilderness Travel.  We had showers, a dining room with real chairs and toilets.  All luxuries that we would not have for the next four days.

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We arrived at camp early and were able to get organized before sunset.  There was one tall mountain just to the North of us called Mount Veronica with very nice glaciers at the top.  It was often covered by clouds and our guide told us that she had been on trips where it was not visible at all so we were lucky to get good glimpses of it.

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That evening, our crew (more on that later) had a treat for us: a special meal called Pachamanca which is slow-cooked meat and vegetables surrounded by hot rocks.  The first step is to get the rocks really hot with a fire.

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What the crew did not know is that they were going to get an extra helper.  Bee has always been fascinated by fires and so she volunteered to help keep the fire going to heat the rocks.  At first, they kept a close eye on her.

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We did not get a sunset, as the sky was cloudy and we were surrounded by mountains.  But we could see the last rays of the setting sun on some of the mountains near us.

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and Mount Veronica got better and better every minute!

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Eventually, the crew decided that Bee was not going to immolate herself, or half the country and could be trusted to look after the fire alone. Continue reading “Peru Episode 3: The Inca Trail”

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An Unusual Transhumance

Last Sunday, on a prairie called “Le Chant des Cailles” in the middle of Watermael-Boisfort (one of the communes that comprises the greater Brussels) people slowly gathered but also seemed puzzled.

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There are vegetables in the garden, but they are ignored by the crowd.

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Children are also present, some wearing costumes, but this is not a masked ball.

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There is sheep wrestling too.  But the only spectators here are other sheep – they actually seem to be very puzzled as to what their “man-friend” Antoine is doing to their boyfriend!  All these are 8-9 month old yews with a single “ram” charged with inseminating them.  He has been quite busy and successful so far!  Jamina later went to reassure the ladies.

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So why the crowd – the anticipation is building as the people move to a local street.  One car came up the street, and upon seeing the unexpected crowd made a quick U-turn and is now fleeing the scene.  There are even professional photographers, who should watch their backs!

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Jeremy has decided that all is OK and the show can begin Continue reading “An Unusual Transhumance”

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Peru Episode 2: Cuzco and the Sacred Valley

We arrived in Cuzco in mid-afternoon and by the time we settled into our hotel (right next to Plaza De Armas) and met our tour leader Holy for a quick orientation chat, it was already dark.  We decided to go for a stroll and discover the immediate neighborhood around the hotel.  We also wanted to scope out several restaurants in the area and decide where we would eat.

Near the hotel, we saw our first Inca Wall, down a narrow pedestrian street.  Little did I know when I took this picture that somewhere down the wall on the right there is a 12-cornered stone – we found it later…

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A little further, in the square in front of the Monasterio Hotel where we will be staying later, there were school children hard at work rehearsing a dance routine.  We saw several such events in the next few days and were told that it is not unusual for classes to organize something special for “Mother’s Day” which would be celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

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Plaza de Armas – the central square in today’s Cuzco (actually it was already the central square in Inca Times too).

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Before dinner, we had a drink in a cafe overlooking the Plaza; Cuzco is surrounded by hills and one of these is visible on the left.  In the distance, a statue of Christ (similar to, but smaller than the one in Rio) seemed to float above the city like a ghostly figure.

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The next day, Bee and I explored the city on our own.  We first stopped at an attraction that is not in any of our guides as it was only discovered and developed a few years ago.  Right in the centre of Cuzco, the remains of several Inca houses have been discovered.  The site is called Kusicancha and I was able to find very few references to it even on Google search!  The church in the background is Santo Domingo, part of the Qorikancha Complex which we will visit later with our group.

PeruBlog054 Continue reading “Peru Episode 2: Cuzco and the Sacred Valley”

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A Week-End in Murano

Bee and I go away each year for her birthday.  In 2014, I surprised her by signing us up for a walking (trekking) tour in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy, something she had said repeatedly we should do.  That trip was already published on my blog last month.

Our trip started on Sunday from Venice and since there is a late flight from Brussels to Venice, we decided to leave after work on Friday.  We would arrive very late, in August, at the airport and I did not want to have to fight the crowds in Venice itself.  Looking at the Vaporetto Line from the airport into Venice, we noticed that the first stop was in Murano, and thus decided to stay there instead.  It would give us one full day and one half day to wander around before we had to meet the rest of the group.  We did not go to Venice itself at all on this visit.

Early Saturday, we started to explore Murano, which I knew a little from my previous trips to Venice and always enjoyed.  However, the previous visits were fleeting since I was staying on the ‘main’ island and I was looking forward to spending more time, and especially the evening in Murano as well.

Throughout the island there are glass statues, or monuments from local artists.  I particularly like the contrast between the very modern Glass Comet (the sculpture is called La Cometa di Vetro by Simone Cenedese) and the 19th century clock tower built on the foundations of a much older 12th century church steeple, long gone along with the church.

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Around the corner, we ran into a lovely old house – what I like most about Murano is that it still has a human scale and feels suburban compared to Venice.  This old house is surrounded by a garden and a majestic garden gate – you would not see something like this in Venice any more.

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The back of the Chiesa dei Santi Maria e Donato (Church of the Saints Mary and Donato) – this is one of the oldest churches in the Venice lagoon, originally built in the 7th century with known restorations in 9th and 10th centuries, possibly some even later.  Known for its 12th century mosaic floor.  It houses small bones from St. Donatus of Arezzo and larger bones from a ‘dragon’ that the saint is reported to have killed.

The back of the church has a definite Moorish look, and so do the decorations inside.

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The garden in the back of the Glass Museum gives a good view of the Campanile of Santo Donato (short name for the church above!)

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A typical canal in Murano – this is suburbia – there is a three boat porch in front of every house – sorry, no cars. Continue reading “A Week-End in Murano”

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Posted in Culture, Food, Travel

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2

After 5 days in Naples, Bee and I moved to the relative tranquility of Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples, on the Amalfi Peninsula, and the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and Capri.  We had ten more days to explore this part of Italy, rich in History, Art and Nature.

We went to Capri on our first day there – the weather forecast was not ideal for the week to come and we thought we wanted to take advantage of a reasonable day to explore the island.

Unfortunately, two cruise ships had arrived overnight, and all passengers from the ships were also going to Capri.  Our ferry into the island was full and we could not get the return trip we wanted, so had a return earlier than we wanted initially.

Still, the day started positive – we booked a boat trip around the island, which included a visit to the Blue Grotto and wandered around the harbor while waiting for the departure.  It was very interesting to see that even though this is a very touristy island, there are still people here doing traditional work, such as fishing out of small boats.

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Here is a general view of the main harbour.  On the side of the mountain in the background, you can see the first few houses of the second town in Capri called Anacapri.

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Taxis on the island have been somewhat modified to cater to the expectations of local tourists.  It is obvious that the maximum expected speed on the island is very low, or this type of roof on a car would not survive very long.

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On the trip around the island, we first passed by the Blue Grotto.  We were told that unfortunately the tide and the wave were too high to be able to visit the grotto that day.  The entrance is very tight and it is often impossible to go through.  However, it looks like some people are making it, so I am not sure if the boat captain was telling us the truth or not.

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At the Western tip of the island, on Punta Carena, stands a very tall light house.  It is critical to mark the entrance to the Bay of Naples where there has been a busy port for many centuries.

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Again, we can see that normal life continues around tourism – this gentleman was fishing probably in the same way they were doing it 100 and 500 years ago!

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Continue reading “Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2”

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WWI – In Flanders Fields

In November, Bee and I decided to go visit the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres and a few of the monuments around that area where battles were fought during WWI.

The museum is great, with a very good history of the many battles around Ypres.  The area around Ypres was the only part of Bergium that was not conquered by the German Army during the whole duration of the War.  The invasion was stoppped by flodding the fields around the Yser River and then everything was bogged down in four years of trench warfare.

www.inflandersfields.be/en is a very good site about the museum if you want to know more about it.

After lunch in Ypres, we started driving around and came about this WWI cemetery as we were driving by.  This is the Menin Road South Cemetery with mostly British and Commonwealth soldiers.  The whole area is dotted with small cemeteries.  At the time, armies tended to burry the dead as they fell, into small fields. These were then reorganised and preserved after the war.

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These are very peaceful places, even in the middle of the city, they seem to have an aura of themselves.  We discovered that there are hundreds of these small cemeteries all over the area.

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The Menin Gate in Ypres is a memorial to soldiers killed in the Ypres Salient and whose grave is unknown.  54896 names are listed on the walls and alcoves of the monument.  The Memorial was dedicated in 1927 and is still the site of an annual ceremony on ANZAC day, on the anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli when Australia and New Zealand honour the memory of those fallen in foreign wars.

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Below is a monument to the many Indian soldiers who participated and died in the many battles for Ypres.  We were surprised to see an Indian flag in the middle of the city, up on the ramparts, so we explored a little bit closer.  What a shock it must have been for these soldiers to leave India and end up in a muddy trench in rainy, cold Belgium.

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Further along the old city ramparts, we saw the Ramparts Cemetery, near Lille Gate.  It started as a French cemetery but in 1915 and 1916, welcomed mostly Commonwealth victims.  At the end of the war, the French soldiers were removed.

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Here is an example of graves from the Ramparts cemetery.

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Just outside Ypres was an extensive set of trenches and caves dug up by the Yorkshire Regiment over many years of war. Some of it has been preserved in this secluded lot in the middle of a light industry zone.

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Here is the entrance to underground caves.  The old sandbags have been replaced with concrete imitations.

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Bee is looking at the trenches, and just imagining what it must have been like after 10 days of continuous rain in only 5 DegC weather…

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It was a good day of remembrance.  We ended up in Nieuwpoort, having an excellent dinner before going home.

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Carnaval of Malmedy 2014

I do not make it every years, but whenever I can I always enjoy spending the Sunday of Carnaval in Malmédy, in the South of Belgium, in the Ardennes.  There is a very special celebration there each year, with some formal and traditional events, but especially a carnival parade with free participation from anybody who wants.  This year was the 556 year that this tradition has existed.  There are records dating back to 1458 – however, nobody can be quite sure how many parades there have been in total.  It probably changed a little bit over the years too.

The Sunday celebration opens with the “Dance de la Haguète” – last time we came, we missed that as we were still having lunch, so I wanted to make sure that we saw it this time.  We setup at the front of the crowd early and waited.

As I said, there is a lot of free participation to all events.  Three teen girls, dressed as Pandas entertained us for a few minutes – they were obviously having fun.

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The Haguète is a very colourful traditional costume.  They must have been treated very poorly in the past, or in traditional lore, or legend … some time any way as their carnival “trick” is to capture the ankle of an innocent bystander with their wooden tool (not sure what it is called) and force them to apologise on their knees, before they are released.  Traditionally also, a different society each year gets to open the parade with a dance.  As you can see on this picture, some of them start very young…

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There were a lot of people watching from every point of view.  There was also a duo between the band accompanying the Haguète and the brass band on the balcony here.

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As the parade was getting ready, we actually met the three clowns who get to open the parade.  It is obviously a great honour to be selected for that job; as soon as she saw my camera, I got the best smile in the world!  And we chatted a while after that.

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Continue reading “Carnaval of Malmedy 2014”

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