BEEK CARNAVAL

Once a year the whole of Limburg: Dutch, Belgian and German, goes completely mad. Each town appoints a jester to take over the administration, there are carnival processions, everyone gets dressed up and, most importantly, they drink from dawn to dusk.

Apparently the carnivals of South America owe their existence to the sailors from this part of the world who made up much of the hired help on European journeys of exploration to the continent and took their tradition with them.

We missed the Carnaval the first year we were here so Mo consulted a number of her work colleagues to find out if it was worth getting involved. Perhaps surprisingly, most thought it was just a poor excuse to drink too much, behave badly, get mugged, etc and, perhaps like many of the residents of Notting Hill, advised steering clear of the whole thing. One thing we couldn't resist, though, was the parade of floats through the town.

Although it's only a little town the parade went on for an hour with over 50 floats - some of them very impressive.