My last post on August 27 was the first part of Astrid's birthday celebration this year, which included granddaughter Hailey at the Adventure Farm the day before her actual birthday. Remember?
Today's post is the actual day of her birthday, August 24, celebrated at the Garderen sand-sculpture festival 84 km from home. It's our 3rd year in a row to visit these incredible creations that still blow our socks off.
Because I turned 75 in June, when we normally go (for MY birthday), it was the perfect theme, all about what happened in WWII, ending with Liberation from the Germans on May 5th, 1945. It's a HUGE event for all of Europe (the world!), but you can be sure it's extra special for the Dutch.
Put on your seatbelt for the ride of your life. It's long, mainly because I want it all in one post, but I'll keep text to a minimum. Let the images tell you everything you need to know...and/or Google the rest.
It's a no-brainer at the entrance what this is going to be about.
And this is all before you enter the main door of the exhibits!
We noticed right away that THIS year "live" (non-sand) props were included everywhere.
All of the above was in the first walk-through room, with exhibits on both sides.
The second section, about the celebration after liberation, I'm leaving for the the end,
including the following walk outside. You'll see why at the end.
Throughout the war, there was displacement as homes were destroyed.
Do any of us know what that felt like?
What about the Jews being transported to death camps?
And to think some today think it was all a hoax!
The attention to detail, let alone subject matter, still blows me away.
The biggest exhibit, straddling a "river," was about "A Bridge Too Far."
Remember that movie?
We took son Mark to see this bridge in Arnhem, 77 km away, back in 2018.
This is the video Astrid took of the exhibit, which gives a better feel for its size.
Warships and planes were a big part of the war, of course.
And the war reporters kept track of it all.
The Dutch remember these things!
In between all the exhibits were reenactments setting the stage.
Speaking of outside (remember?), this was another large exhibit of sculptures.
Anne Frank
Hitler
Yalta Conference
In a couple of these you can see the liberation...
...which takes me back to the liberation section on the inside at the beginning.
Europeans remember this. Americans like me have an inkling of what it must have been like.
Pure jubilation.
LEST WE FORGET.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
As if that weren't enough, each year, totally apart from the theme, there's a section of sculptures
that forms a riddle to be solved. This year it was the names of 36 cities/villages in the Netherlands.
You had to figure out the name of the city by clues in the sculpture.
Some of them even you could figure out, without clues.
It had just rained before we arrived that day.
The flowers seemed an apt memorial for what we had just seen.
All of this during a pandemic!
And now we can hardly wait to see what next year's theme will be.
