Vredefeesten in Sint-Niklaas |
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Luc De Wulf, model balloonist from Belgium, had invited us in summer 2005 to come to the
Balloon Festival at Sint-Niklaas in Belgium. The traditional event, taking place for the
58th time this year, should now feature model balloons for the first time.
A real wheat beer - right in Belgium: Matthias and Werner have happily arrived after an over eight hour journey |
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22 model balloonists from all over Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany
had come to Sint-Niklaas. During the briefing, organizer Elizabeth gave us all the
necessary information, where and when to put up our balloons, etc. ...
The group photo with the young lady is also available in a higher resolution - just click on the picture! |
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One of the many highlights at Sint-Niklaas (apart from Elizabeth *g*) is the launch site
of the balloons, as this is the great market place, right in the center of the town!
The gas balloons were the first to rise into the sky. In the background, the historic town hall of Sint-Niklaas |
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From four to five o'clock in the afternoon, the market place was the arena for the
model balloons. The local police guided us from our nearby parking lot to the market
place in a convoy... things that you don't see every day ;-)
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Stong gusts of wind troubled us from time to time, but yet, we managed to keep our
balloons up. The audience, of course, loved it anyway.
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The Mouse of Bernard Bilquey from Vesoul (France) didn't have anything to fear...
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... Werner kept our cat under good control, despite the turbulences :-)
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After the model balloons, it was time for the "big ones". In four waves,
one after the other, the 44 balloons rose into the cloudless evening skies.
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Even the German Balloon Youth was present at Sint-Niklaas - Tomas Hora and Matthias
Höhl had brought along the youth balloon
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And after the big balloons, the special shapes were inflated and even launched
from the market place. One of them was the "Flying Cathedral" from
Switzerland...
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... another one was the 60-meters-tall parrot "Macau" from France, which
had already made friends with our little Penguin at the Balloon Meeting at Pforzheim
in the year 2000 ;-)
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At the final gala dinner on Sunday, everyone showed up in his best dress!
Co-organizer Luc De Wulf in conversation with Matthias Schlegel
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And that's how the lucky model balloonists looked like - at least a part of them ;-)
You may also enlarge this picture by clicking it! We want to say our heartfelt thanks for this wonderful weekend to Luc De Wulf, his wife Sabine and all the other organizers of this event - and, of course, to lovely Elizabeth! :-) |
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