Monday, February 27, 2012

CARNIVAL IN NIVELLES - BELGIUM

Each year after Rio and Cologne famous Carnivals have finished their celebrations Nivelles starts its Carnival at the end of February and as it is only 15 km (9 miles) far from Waterloo I took the train instead of my car because that day it's impossible to find a parking space. People are coming from everywhere.

Nivelles' station where the Carnival floats gathered and started their parade. I just arrived in time at 2 pm to take some pictures.




very colorful !

the witches (males and females) attack the spectators with their broom, and twice I was their victime and lost my cap !

Some Arabs tried to fix their "Palm tree"





Pirates






Maybe this was a Carnival princess

people in costumes

Carnival kids

and the famous "Gilles" with their enormous ostrich feather hats coming from the most famous carnival city Binche. (see my post of last year)

Their baskets are filled with oranges

which they throw in the crowd and people try to catch them. After I got nearly one on my glasses and another one hit me at my shoulder, I called my friend Chantal who lives in Nivelles and asked her to get me out of there, which she did and I spent the rest of the afternoon with her outside of all this hurly burly while her sons and friends and girlfriends just left to celebrate the Carnival until early morning.

and the sidewalks show that the Carnival procession had passed by ! It's not snow, but confettis.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Grea post, and glad you're OK. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Sylvia K said...

Oh, yes! I'm glad you're okay! But it does look like a fun day -- other than getting smacked!! Your captures are terrific, everything so colorful and you can almost feel the excitement! Hope you have a great week, Gattina!

Sylvia

eileeninmd said...

What a fun parade! I love all the colors and the floats. The children in costumes are cute. Great captures. Have a wonderful week!

Indrani said...

So much of fun! Very colorful, lovely and lively captures.

arabesque said...

what a festive day that was. ^0^
i love how everything seems colorful and vibrant. ^0^

Loree said...

I haven't made it to our Carnival for years and years. I keep saying I need to go and take pictures but can't be bothered to deal with the crowd.

Sallie (FullTime-Life.com said...

Colorful and fun celebration! Thanks for sharing. I am envious that you can hop on a train to get there. Oh how I wish we had better public transportation here.

Kat said...

What a great carnival and such wonderful pictures! Glad you were not hurt in the orange throwing incident... but wow - really cool

Trotter said...

Hi Gattina! Sorry for the absence, but time has been at a premium here... ;)

Rio has no comparison; and though I like Cologne, doesn't match Venice... ;)

Blogtrotter Two has reached April 2011; no trips, and posting delay is shortening... ;). Enjoy and have a great weekend!!!

Cambay Hotels & Resorts said...
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Lifecruiser Travel said...

Looks like a fun carnival indeed, even though the throwing of oranges seem to be a little bit too much. We have way too few carnivals in this country...

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I love writing, traveling and photography. . I am German, married to an Italian and we live in Waterloo (15 km from Brussels) / Belgium since many years. Waterloo is a famous place to many tourists, because Napoleon lost his battle here against Wellington and other European countries.

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