Saturday, August 9, 2008

Zurich Street Parade

We went into Zurich for the Street Parade this morning with our friends Jo, Christian, and their twin daughters. Basically it is a huge rave. Even though we were walking around Zurich before the real party got started, there were still crowds, costumes, dancing, and drinking going on. I should just let the pictures do the talking on this one.

We arrived at Hauptbahnhof, Zurich's main train station, around 10:45 am. We headed to the Street Parade via Bahnhofstrasse.

Shortly into our walk we saw a table filled with costume items for Street Parade. Included were wings, wands, glitter, and crowns. Oddly enough, the store selling the items was Claire's, the same store in malls across the States.

We couldn't resist and decked out the girls.
We started off again and realized the girls couldn't be the only festive ones in our group. So the boys got into the act.
While we were buying the wigs for the men, the girls met a biker dude. They were wary of him.
Not to be outdone, Jo and I bought ourselves boas that matched our husband's wigs. Our group looked awesome.
Wholesome awesome compared to other outfits out there. Keep in mind these were all taken around noon today.

These women were older than they look in this picture.

Music and awesome people watching. What a fabulous Saturday.

Now, it isn't uncommon for people to stop people in costume to ask for a picture. Mostly the girls in the skimpy outfits were stopped.
The girls in orange and white got stopped a lot.

But then we got a request because our girls looked that cute.
However, Marion was a bit impatient and hit the poor girl in the face with her wand.
That isn't how you should treat fans Marion!

We continued our walk through the city and managed to run into Ed Reed towards the end of our walk.

And an Olympic athlete.
We then decided to take the ferry home. We asked the woman at the front of the boarding area which boat we should take. She said, "Wädenswil." We replied, "No" then repeated our destination. Wädenswil is a couple of towns south of where we were going along the lake. And then she pointed. The boat's name was Wädenswil.
Confusing.

The boat ride was fantastic. A bit chilly at times but gorgeous.

And then we went home and took naps. A great way to spend a Saturday morning. Probably the only time the Street Parade is toddler friendly.

*More pictures of the sights we saw today on Flickr.

7 comments:

Susan May said...

I'm glad it was still relatively "tame" when you all were downtown today. My husband and I (and my dog!) just returned from a day in the mountains (by design) and were trying to navigate the Main Train Station at about 9:00 p.m. Oh my word, it was a little scary! I was trying to keep my dog from ingesting Lord knows what off the ground (especially broken glass!) I think next year (if I'm still here in Zurich) I'll plan to be away the entire weekend!

Anonymous said...

So happy to see Brian choose the green hat...would have been too matchy/matchy... :)

Seriously....what a great day !
Always something special going on for you guys. What a great place to live.

I bet everyone was sleepy by the end of the day.
Great choice to take the ferry home.

Love you all

Anonymous said...

Very cool. Looks like a TON of fun!

Definitely think Brian should break out that electric wig over christmas. Just for kicks. It suits him.

lindsay said...

i was having flashbacks from some of the sites in vegas with those pictures.

Lemon Gloria said...

This looks like such a fun day! As always, I love that you put up a bunch of picture with your stories. I know how time-consuming that is, but it really illustrates so nicely.

Anonymous said...

Wild!!! Can you let me know when next year's parade is.... Mom and I might want to play dress-up. But I'm curious... was the girl with the boa dancing for Marion or Brian?

mrsmac said...

Susan- Oh my goodness! That sounds interesting, glad we left early! Hope your dog didn't injest anything, god knows what he could have found!

Grammie- Yep, it was a good day. :-)

Colleen- Brian wants to use the wig for Halloween and St Patrick's Day. Shouldn't take too much convincing to get him to wear it for Christmas too!

Lindsay- No kidding! Vegas, good memories!

Lisa- Thanks so much!

Hoppy- That is Jo, she was dancing with Marion. If you look
closely, you'll see Marion dancing as well.