Boulder to London

Our three day weekend was capped off with a trip to the Notting Hill Carnival which claims to be the biggest street party in Europe.  I saw estimates that they were expecting between one and two million people at the two day event.  We were warned about the crowds, so we showed up around noon today to check out the action.  The first few hours were a little slow as it seemed like the festivities were just getting started.  The theme for the event is Caribbean so we grabbed a few red stripes to get warmed up as the parade passed by slowly.  We saw a samba group, a couple of percussion groups and some beautiful and ornate costumes along the way.  However, the entrant of choice seemed to be large flat bed trucks packed with speakers and DJs that led groups of dancing partiers along the parade route.  While I am sure that the members of these groups were somehow affiliated with one another, a few of them could have been assembled in the early hours of the morning from whatever club was closing down nearby.  We enjoyed the fun and got to taste some great food.  We returned home before things got too crazy and I’m sure if we had stayed longer that we would have witnessed all of the street party action that Europe has to offer.