The summerfest (& summer!) has begun

Saturday evening saw the start of the week-long zomerfeesten here in Nijmegen. It coincides with the 4daagse (4 days walk/march) which begins on Tuesday, and it has also perfectly coincided with the return of summer weather here, finally!!!! Saturday was a warm, sunny 30 C and we had a relaxed BBQ on our balcony with Niek, Marlene, and Maurice (especially flown in from Melbourne ;-))

That was before heading off into the city centre to enjoy the free outdoor music, dance to a fabulous, energetic performance by Stijn (a Belgian electronic popster, who, coincidentally, is known to Jeroen via the Prince forum!!!), drink a few beers with friends and end up at a techno party in the Old Cave - literally an old cave/tunnel/sewer thingy!! I still can't believe how bloody hot and dark it was in there!

Apparently this year's start to the week's festivities was the biggest ever, with over 150,000 people in the "city" on Saturday evening. It's the one time of the year that you can expect to hear English, French, Japanese, Italian and just about every other language in between spoken on the streets. People travel here from all over the world just to walk - for 4 days!!! Go figure. Hopefully the crazy weather here doesn't get so crazy again that the whole thing has to be cancelled as it was last year. Our street becomes via Gladiola again for the day on Friday, when all the walkers finish their 4 days by walking past our house, and we even have a star spangled "walk of fame" this year (see photo above).

Friday also sees a festival-closing performance by favourite local boys, de Sjonnies (here right), a funky, tongue in cheek cabaret style trio.

Further updates to follow during the week :-)

Alli xxx