Amsterdam's Canal Parade

What you will see...

Downtown Amsterdam is crisscrossed by many wide canals, and frequent bridges and seawalls provide great vantage points for viewing a parade. So the annual gay pride parade there is held on water!

Floats, which in Amsterdam's case are actually floating, must be made lower than their on-street counterparts to clear frequent low bridges, and the sides of floats are thus smaller so not so decorated. On the other hand, barges are available wider and longer than a flatbed truck so some floats are larger. Parade watchers get a different vantage point - looking down at the floats rather than up - and thus the floors and tops of floats are sometimes decorated. All this combines to provide a different viewing experience than an on-street parade.

How the slide show works...

Pictures will be displayed in order. After seeing each picture, click on it to see the next one. If you want to skip some, you can see small versions of the next 15 that are coming at the bottom. Click on the first one of those that you want to see, and you will skip ahead.

You can only go back by clicking "back" on your browser, so it's best to not try to skip around.

If you've gone through all the pictures and ask for the next one, you will come back to this page.