Halle Carnaval 2017.

Halle is a small city in Flemish Branbant province and about 17 KM away from Brussels, Belgium. It takes about 9 minutes to go to Halle from Brussels Midi station, in a non-stop train.

This is where I worked for about a year for Colruyt Group - one of the finest employer one can hope to  get. Colruyt Group is one of the largest food retailers in the world and No.1 in Belgium and it is also Belgium's leading business conglomerate that is into food and non-food retailing, toys retailing, wholesale, and renewable energy

Every year  in March, during Lent (a christian religious observance,), a 3 days carnival is celebrated with great pomp and show. Many colorful and brightly lit floats, people in various costumes take part in this fun-filled parade. Of course, there is overwhelming Belgian signature food - Waffles, Chocolate in every state of matter, french fries and most importantly several dozens of variety of beers.

Conducted for more than 110 years, Halle carnival  has grown in size ,year after year, and is considered as next biggest after Aalst carnival.

I was lucky to be working in Halle and got a chance to enjoy this year's edition of  carnaval 2017.

Kuekenhoff - The Tulip Garden..

Here in Brussels, climate can change in matter of hours, something I have not experienced in Chennai, India. Whole week was warm enough I did'nt wear a jacket or sweater. Every weekend, since late October'16, has almost always been cloudy, chilly and bit depressing climate, to step out and explore a beautiful country like Belgium and other parts of Europe. I was waiting for climate to improve - become warm enough to venture outside and wear my traveller's hat. 😊

Got a first chance and motivation  to step out, even though climate did'nt change. 8th April 17, was one another chilly Saturday.  My colleagues Shagun, Dileep, Jagadeesh and others arranged and coordinated a day-trip to Kuekenhof in Netherlands. We were around 30 of us colleagues and few of them were accompanied by their family, including kids as well. Breakfast, lunch and tea from a Indian restaurant was also arranged.We hired a comfortable 40+ seater coach and started around 8AM in Halle, Belgium.  By the way, our office is in Halle, Belgim, and also where most number of colleagues were living. Halle is a small beautiful and peaceful town and is about 18KM away from Brussels. 

We had to stop thrice - once in Brussels to pick up few colleagues and their family, once in Mechelen for breakfast and once in Netherlands for fueling.   We then arrived at Lisse, Netherlands around 1.30PM, where the Keukenhoff garden and Tulip fields are. Climate changed a lot, it was sunny and was 'hot' enough for many Europeans.  We quickly had lunch as soon as we got down from bus and around 2PM we stepped into Kuenkenhoff garden. This year, the whole arrangement was based on "Dutch Theme".

Wow. Spectacular.

The rest of experience is not meant to written here but 'experienced' - like they say each picture speaks 1000 words, here, each tulip does "expresses" 1000 words.

I have made an attempt - my first attempt to 'express' a part of the experience via this photo-post. As a good friend, if you think I didnt 'express' properly, please leave your critic/comments and suggest what else can I do better. Last 4 photos were taken from moving bus, so it may not have that much of clarity. 

Welcome to Kuenkenhoff and enjoy the flowers. colors and both.