Utrecht Carnival

Carnival is mainly celebrated “below the big rivers” as there are the Rhine, the Maas and the Waal, so in short the south part of the Netherlands. But it doesn’t keep other parts of the Netherlands from celebrating it too, although it doesn’t really lives under the population as in the south. So also in Utrecht are a lot of closed societies were carnival is a festival to look forward too.
The towns and villages, in which carnival is celebrated, get another name during the carnival days. Utrecht is called Leemput ( verbatim: clay well).

Today the festival started at the statue of Trijn van Leemput (+/- 1530-1607), a female Utrecht resistance fighter at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War against the Spanish Empire.
She got a garland (bloemenkrans) around her neck.

One hour later, the procession with Prince Carnaval and his retinue (gevolg) went to the townhall. At 12:08 PM Mayor Aleid Wolfsen handed the “Key of the City” to Prince Martijn XXXIV.

You see the Prince with the “Golden Key” on an cord on his chest. The Mayor -in the middle -applauds, happy ( when I know him well) that this ceremony has almost come to an end :).

Utrecht Walk Of Fame

In Utrecht the Netherlands Film Festival will take place (in 2009) from September 23 up to October 2. One of the official events is the disclosure (onthulling) of the gilt bronze tile in the Walk of Fame in the Vinkenburgstraat.

For that a red carpet is rolled out. On the place where the tile is situated, a square is cut out and later placed back with double sided adhesive tape. The intention is that the “star” takes the square piece of carpet away and….tararaaaa!!! sees the tile, glittering in the sun.

Unfortunately it sometimes happens that the piece of carpet is taken away but..... the adhesive tapes still stick on the tiles so that, at the moment suprême, someone quickly has to remove the tape in order to save the embarrassing situation.
The tile above is the tile of Carice van Houten who played a magnificent role in the film Zwartboek (Black book), released in September 2006.