Today Sinterklaas came to town in Holland. Sinterklaas and Santa Claus are similar fictional characters except that Sinterklaas comes to town by boat about three weeks before he actually gives out the presents (on December 5th). To read the complete story about the tradition and origins of Sinterklaas, click on this link.

Sinterklaas’ arrival is a big deal to children (and their parents) in Holland. Every major city has Sinterklaas "representative" arrive by boat, float up the canal, and dock downtown. Once he has disembarked (a term I learned from cruising), he mounts his horse and parades around the city.

We fully intended to see Sinterklaas arrive on the boat and parade through the streets of Groningen. Unfortunately, Brad and I had different ideas of when and where he was supposed to arrive and almost completely missed it. We were both pretty disappointed since we had planned our whole day around it. However, we did end up catching most of the parade which in the end made us feel somewhat better.

Anyways, the parade was different than anything I’d ever experienced! It is nothing like the big Thanksgiving day parade in America, or the rinky-dink Lopez Island 4th of July parade or even the cutsie-tootsie Lynden parades which all have floats and streamers and sometimes groups of people making political statements. We would have recorded all of this on camera, but alas, our battery was dead! The photo above was "borrowed" from the Groningen city website.

This parade was much shorter and more symbolic. First came (by carriage) what looked like the important people of the town – the mayor perhaps – dressed in official looking outfits from the last century. Then several dozen Zwarte Piets doing tricks and handing out spiced cookies (see the link for a description of Zwarte Piet).

Then there were several rustic carriages (they actually looked like old fashioned sleds – on wheels) carrying brightly wrapped presents with the names of the kids in the town written in big letters. The carriages were pulled by horses of all shapes and sizes. Those miniature horses are sure cute!

And then comes along the animals – an elephant (yes, a real life elephant in Groningen!), two camels (with huge double humps) and a small herd of sheep being herded by sheep dogs. I’m not sure what the elephant, camels or sheep symbolize, but it was interesting to say the least.

Keep in mind that the streets are very narrow here – this street in particular was one lane, so with people lined up on both sides of the road, the parade could barely squeeze through. And we were in the front row. Therefore, I could have touched that elephant if I really wanted to. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that close to an elephant (or camel) even at the zoo.

Anyways, after the animals came Sinterklaas on his horse with his bright red robe and long white beard. And lastly, and seemingly out of place, a complete marching band playing modern, peppy music. A nice touch, but it didn’t fit with the medieval theme.

Interestingly, just before the marching band came the “poop sweeper vehicle” driven by another Zwarte Piet and also carrying presents. This was an important part of the parade because it prevented the marching band from soiling their nice white shoes.

On the whole, it was a fun day. Maybe next year we won't get our wires crossed and we'll get the complete Sinterklaas experience.