Kyle and I (along with our new neighbors Ruth and Alister) took the 45 minute train to Luzern for the day. We didn't know what to expect and didn't even know if it would be worth it. We ended up having a great time (so much so I'm taking Justin to Basil for a similar Carneval on Wednesday).
From looking at the pictures it probably looks like we attended a parade. That's not exactly how it worked. There was a schedule of bands in each little square of the city. The bands would march to their square, play a few songs, drink a few beers, and then march off to their next square. They also dress up in these crazy costumes with great masks (some of them reminded me of Muppets). We talked to a 'local' for a little bit and it sounds like these costumes change every year. I hope they rent them (or at least trade around with eachother) because they look like they take a LOT of work and not cheap to make (Who am I kidding, nothing's cheap in CH)
If you wanted to just stay in one square all day and see who came to play you could. Or you could walk around and just follow the music. That's what we ended up doing.
Here's the float we found first thing. We kept waiting for them to perform or move or something and then never really did. They just stood around and chit chatted.
Do you remember this building from an old blog post? This building shows the story of Carneval.
Don't these masks look like something right out of 'The Labrynth'?
I saw these signs and couldn't help but take pictures. PC or what!?!
This band was dresses up like kindergardeners. See the yellow 'V' around the guys neck? Little kids actually wear those things every day to school to say they are unsupervised children. I still maintain they look like bullseyes.
Even the tubas got into the act!
We then found the department store that was supplying the confetti and some of the cheaper looking costumes. They boys had to try on some hats.
Some more crazy costumes:
These guys were fun to watch. They guy on the far right's fake boobs were so big he had to wheel his drum around in a shopping cart.
Doesn't this mask look like he should be the long lost cousin of the Gourd from 'Fraggle Rock'?
I did get to take one 'pretty' picture of the wooden bridge. If you look closely you can see where the middle of it burned down and they repaired it.
This band did only Bon Jovi stuff...we watched them for a while.
I think this tree has a banner from all the different bands.
More fun costumes:
EVERYBODY got into the spirit! (luckily the little kids did have headphones)
I loved all the masks. I could have taken pictures of them all day long (and, as you can see, I tried)
This last Saturday was Zurich's version of Carneval. L.A.M.E. They had a little bitty tent with the loudspeaker playing pre-recorded music. We didn't stay very long. Zurich did have a couple band walking around the Old Town but it wasn't anything compared to this! (I can only assume it's because Zurich isn't mostly Catholic.)
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