Spotted as soon as we left our hotel to find food: apres-ski bunnies, a tiny Red Riding Hood, and these three furry guys.
Jellyfish!
As our first parade sorta began, there were all sorts of non-group-affiliated marchers ("die Wilden," auf Deutsch) that came through first. Awwww, Lego family...
...and a family of lighthouses! The beacon on top of the tallest one actually had a flashing light in it.
Eventually, the larger organized groups started coming by, and one of the earliest was full of THE SCARIEST THINGS EVER. For lack of a better word, we called them "Krampi," as in the (possible) plural of Krampus, the terrifying punisher-of-bad-children who pops up alongside St. Nick at Christmastime in various European countries. Seriously, I could not deal with these things, and I hid behind Mike like a little kid. SO SCARY.
Ooh, pretty Day of the Dead-themed float, though...!
And then there were these nifty carved wooden masks from the Chriens area, which were just amazing!
Elf-type things, whose masks I'm also fairly sure were wooden.
Um, there are a lot of photos here, so I'm just going to let them speak for themselves unless I feel further explanation/commentary is warranted. (And just FYI, everything that looks like a float here has a bar in it. Post-parade, the marchers park their various carts and wagons and have their very own private bars all lined up in a rather spectacular row.)
This thing was massive and ornate, and had a confetti machine gun mounted on top...
...and was towing this caged thing at the back.
And then the Gugge bands started up. These people wear these crazy get-ups and march and play their instruments during the day, both in parades and in little spot-parties, and then they set up stands and play all over the city at night. I have no idea how they stay awake after the first day, really.
Our friend Yannick, who's from Lucerne (and was clearly up to no good here), convinced Mike to get into the spirit, as well. (Too bad Mike forgot his giant sombrero. And before you ask, my "costume" was a cat-ear headband. The only other costumey thing I own is a dirndl, and I'm sure as heck not wearing that around for two days.)
More elf-like things...
...with their very own fairy-forest train. The details on this thing were unbelievable.
As in Basel, all of the bandleaders were rather spectacularly dressed.
More wooden masks.
Srsly, look at these things!
THIS CHAIR WAS MOTORIZED AND I AM STILL JEALOUS.
Lots of Day of the Dead-themed groups.
The skeleton's arms were articulated and the marchers were moving them around all sorts.
These guys were hilarious. They were running about all chaotic-like, but kept stopping and waving their arms at the crowd to get them to cheer...
...and then assembled their "bobsled" and took off down the street. Hah!
I really couldn't get enough of the wooden masks; they were all so individual and so well crafted!
A cyclops and a bishop, because Fasnacht.
It's just not a Swiss event without cowbells.
Or a ginormous "cheese" float with the Gotthard tunnel coming out of it. Hee.
These guys (there were several) would kneel down in front of a kid on the sidelines and open up that little door in their heads, wherein there was some sort of little still-life scenario. Weird, but creative.
Pretty manga-style float.
This was a sort of Basler guest-contingent in the parade; Lucerne doesn't really do these lanterns.
Human haystack, also with wooden mask.
Just read the map. It's amazing.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE! (He's pulling Max along behind him in a boat.)
Um...steampunk flies?
GREMLIN!! (Getting a face full of confetti from an onlooker. The confetti here seemed to be more-or-less entirely thrown by spectators, as opposed to in Basil, where literally everyone in the parade was throwing it [...and vegetables and oranges...] at the crowd. Profligately.)
Aztec lizards...?
Scary group of mud-people-things.
Yeah, so, there were all manner of weird creatures in this parade.
Shiny owls!
More Krampi. Cannot deal.
Post-parade, we crossed the river to check out the view over Lake Lucerne...
...and to people-watch. THOSE ARE HOT-AIR BALLOONS AND I AM IN COMPLETE AWE.
Heh.
Spotted a band that hadn't been in the parade.
It was full of steampunk foxes.
Tried to catch some bands-on-stands in the old town. HOLY WOW, WAS IT CROWDED.
Outside the crowds, though, Lucerne is gorgeous.
Lanterns parked in the Basler area.
Ooh, nighttime parade!
Steel drum band.
Stopped for a bit to watch some of the big Gugge bands perform in this passageway, and their marching and dancing and pop song covers were almost worth braving the crowd. Which was super pushy and intense.
We had dinner with Yannick at a random Mexican restaurant (it was the only thing that had open seating, and it was far too cold to stay outside and eat festival food, despite the glorious, warm sun that had held through the afternoon), then headed to our hotel (the Ameron Hotel Flora, in case you're wondering). Where we were more than pleasantly surprised to find that one could not, in fact, hear the Gugge music that played into the wee hours. Hooray for good windows!
The next "morning" (ok, noon-ish), we set out to find some coffee and food, then meandered around the southern part of old town.
Not kidding, it's so beautiful.
And check out the towers from the 14th-century city wall!
You could definitely tell who was headed to the childrens' parade...
Accidentally crossed paths with said parade, where we saw these amazing stilt dancers.
We stood around for a while watching various bands and people in costume pass by, then decided to head back to our hotel for a couple of hours while the heavens opened up and it poured rain. Thankfully, it stopped by the time Yannick and his girlfriend Nina met up with us for dinner at Wirtshaus Taube, a restaurant serving up "grandmother specialties" in a super-old building. Yes, please. No recollection of what Mike had (...cordon bleu, maybe?), but I had basically a pot pie full of meatballs. Quite tasty, and then it was off to catch the monster parade! (Apologies for the photo quality. Neither I nor my camera respond terribly well to motion in dark settings.)
There was some overlap with the parade from the day before, but not a huge amount.
This purple-winged fairy thing...
...was leading a band full of dudes dressed and masked more-or-less like Prince. Hee.
Ahhhhh, this group was my favorite! I wish we'd seen them in the daytime, because they were so pretty.
Even in the dark, that blue was stunning, and I love the huge flowers.
Not nearly as many of the groups here had individually lit costumes as in Basel, but there were a few.
They did have this thing, though. Whatever it was.
Saw that ginormous beastie thing again from yesterday, parked in its "I'm a bar!" spot on the street full of floats-turned-bars, but this time with an ever-changing light scheme. Neat.
Given its proximity to the parade routes, our hotel lobby was the staging area for several of the groups. The previous day, it'd been full of shaggy, faun-like overalls and various fantastical masks of groups we never actually saw; today, this was parked on the front steps as we turned in for the night. Fantastic.
And again, we spent another night in remarkable quiet, considering the Gugge bands played until at least 4:00 in the morning. Fasnacht in Lucerne is a crazy, crazy party, people, and I can't recommend it enough. In fact, I'd say we are definitely going again sometime--maybe even next year, if the weather's supposed to be nice again! (Definitely worth spending a night there, too. And I might actually put some effort into a costume, too. Fun.)
Up next: a secret dinner, and a lovely outing to the Piedmont (yes, again), but this time in the spring.
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