History made in Nijmegen!

The zomerfeesten (summer fest) started here on Saturday evening and goes all week. It coincides with the famous Nijmegen 4daagse (4 day march), with 49,000 people walking 4 different loops from Tuesday onwards (50, 40, and 30 km loops!!). A bit like an extreme Walk Against Want/Trailwalker. Half of our street has been built up with temporary grandstands, and the city looks totally different with marquees etc everywhere.

We had a relaxed evening on Saturday and Sunday, just wandering the streets and watching music. We had a great evening on Monday when the festival really started - all the streets are closed, there are podiums everywhere, and the population just about doubles in our little city (I think over 1 million people visit the city during the week). We caught the little ferry across the river with some friends to see a crazy German cabaret performer (that's him above!) who was a bit like a reincarnation of Marlene Dietrich, and ended back on board a boat for a techno houseparty and lounging on inflatable sofas on the deck until 3.00am We then walked to the starting point of the walk, where the 50km walkers departed at 4.00am It was so weird - like two worlds colliding. Totally drunk, crazy people at the end of their day cheering on thousands of crazy, amazingly fit people starting their day in the dark. We managed to get ourselves onto television again :-)))

The sad thing is the weather here is soooooo extreme at the moment (65 C was measured at road level on Tuesday!), that 2 people died doing the walk (another 3 almost did!) and the whole walk has been called off for the first time in it's 90 year history! Seems like my first year here will be one of extremes - the most snow, the hottest summer, and now the 4daagse being cancelled! The city was in shock Tuesday night and the partying was a bit subdued. We really only went to see the big fireworks display and were home again by midnight. Some die hard walkers still turned up at the starting point on Wednesday morning 'cause they didn't believe it was over. (PS from Friday 21 July - there are STILL some small groups of walkers making their way down our street this afternoon. They stubbornly walked all of the remaining 3 days anyway!!)

See below for some photos of last year's 4daagse for an idea of what the last day looks like. All the walkers usually finish on Friday by walking down our street, and they all receive gladiolas in recognition of their efforts. Our street even gets renamed Via Gladiola for the day. The ironic thing is that because the walk has now been cancelled the price of gladiolas has dropped dramatically because no one is going to buy them!! The world is strange hey?

Alli xxx