Sechseläuten Children's Parade

Today was Sechseläuten, or as Doc says, Sächsilüüte: the day the Böögg (an effigy of a snowman) is set on fire to celebrate the end of winter. The festivities began yesterday with the Children's Parade through downtown Zürich.

Today's festivities included a parade of the guilds and the burning of the Böögg atop a large bonfire while men on horses ride around the bonfire. After the church bells chime 6 pm, the bonfire is set ablaze and we wait for the Böögg, who is filled with explosives, to explode. The length of time it takes for the Böögg's head to explode will predict how nice the summer will be. This year, the Böögg exploded in just under 13 minutes (as opposed to last year's 26 minutes), so I am looking forward to a pretty nice summer.

The photos here are from the Children's Parade on Sunday. I had to settle for watching the Böögg explode on tv since the afternoon isn't a holiday in the canton where I work. Maybe next year I can go in person and take some photos.












The Böögg: the last float in the parade

Tulips, Tulips and More Tulips

I took so many tulip photos as we walked through Keukenhof. Here are my favorites.

Tulip Fields

Outside Keukenhof were tulip fields. They were so colorful and the pictures of the fields came out way better than I had anticipated. Seeing the fields is something I really wanted to do and made the trip awesome.


The green is row after row of tulips that have not yet bloomed!


My favorite photo from the trip. I think the rows and rows of tulips resemble a pointillist painting.


Far away


Zoomed in

Keukenhof

Our last day in the Netherlands we visited Keukenhof. These gardens are open only two months out of the year. There are just acres and acres of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth in lovely gardens. This was, by far, my favorite part of the trip. Best of all, just outside of the gardens are some tulip fields. Luckily, the camera battery just managed to function until we left the gardens.

It was tough to decide which of the 150+ flower photos to post! Here are some photos from the gardens. Tulip photos will follow.

Amsterdam's Canals

While in Amsterdam, we took two canal cruises and even lucked out and had a hotel room with a view of one of the canals. Here are some of our favorite canal photos.


The first photo I took in Amsterdam, just down the road from the train station.


View from our hotel


Bikes parked along one of the smaller canals


Cruising the canals with a view of bridges in the distance


Homes along the canal


Sunset in Amsterdam

Easter weekend in Amsterdam

I love that Easter weekend in Switzerland is four days long--enough time to go somewhere. We decided to visit Amsterdam. I wanted to check out some of the museums -- especially the Vermeer paintings in the Rijksmuseum -- and was hoping to see tulips in bloom. We spent three days seeing the sites in Amsterdam and on our last day we went to Keukenhof to visit the gardens. I managed to take more photos at the gardens than both of us did in the three days we were in Amsterdam. Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip.


An interesting houseboat


The Rijksmuseum


Behind the Rijksmuseum






Nieuwe Kerk


Anne Frank's house