Dutch trifecta

(As told by Geno) Plenty of stuff going on around Amsterdam in August. We hit three of the big ones. First was "De Parade", an annual festival staging a range of musical, theatrical and comedy acts....and of course, grill your own pancakes? (Yes, we did it, and I ate a disgusting amount of them.) De Parade isn't a pile of dirt with elephants and half-sober clowns, it's a classy but welcoming setting underneath about 3 acres of trees. Here's an evening pic of one of the outdoor bars - notice the water hoses on top.


Then we got a great invitation from some friends to join them on a boat on the Prinsengracht canal to hear a free opera which takes place on a floating stage in the middle of the canal. I'm not a big opera fan, and was selfishly hoping the performance would climax with the stage dramatically sinking into the canal. No such luck. People line the streets in advance and set up little tables for the evening performance. Check out the scene to the left.




Before the weekend ended, I got a chance to go to a proper European Music Festival, you know, the ones with hundreds of thousands of people like the one you see in Guns N' Roses Paradise City video. Wasn't it Jeff Foxworthy who insists rednecks are everywhere, not just the South? I think he reached this conclusion after attending this festival. If you wonder how people are still making money selling tank tops and barb wire tattoos...I give you Lowlands. Low indeed. That said, there was strangely some crazy good asian food, some solid performances by The Shins, Kings of Leon, and Arcade Fire, not to mention some bizarre hands popping out of the water which were freaking just about everyone.