This past weekend, Efteling became the subject of the annual Corso Valkenswaard, a multi-day event originating from the liberation of the Brabant city of Valkenswaard in 1944.  Back then, schools and other groups would decorate their bicycles and cars with flowers and parade them through the streets.

This year, the theme of the event was ’65 Years of Efteling in Flowers’.  The parade consisted of floats decorated with thousands upon thousands of flowers, and included attractions such as The Chinese Nightingale, The Little Match Girl, and Villa Volta.  Some floats were particularly impressive, such as ‘Geprikt’ (that’s ‘pricked’ to you and me) which displayed a giant spinning wheel and floating Sleeping Beauty castle, and Station de Oost: De Brutale Aap, which is represented by a huge monkey, with the station built around him and an Efteling train at the back.  There’s even someone at the front of the float making food!

Station de Oost: De Brutale Aap

My personal favourite however, is the Steam Carousel; two horses attached to a steam engine wheel which rotates, and a handful of organ pipes on the back.  They even had the ‘ticket booth’ in front which you can see at the entrance to the actual building in Efteling.   

There was also a peculiar set of floats at the end of the parade which were there to represent ‘papier hier’, although it didn’t totally resemble any particular waste bins!

I’ll link a video of the whole parade with sound below, and a shorter one below that.  It would be lovely to see something like this in Efteling one day!