What a change! I can’t believe that a few weeks ago I was trying to battle the Love Parade crowds and now I’m trying to stay clear of the Loveboat line-ups. A few weeks ago it was still kind of warm and sunny. I was wearing summer clothes at least. Now it’s cold and rainy. And I’ve run out of clean socks. Yet it was only a couple of weeks ago that I said goodbye in Germany. Anke and Rita brought me to the airport where on somewhat of a self-imposed dare I tried to get on German TV news by walking behind a guy giving a report. It didn’t work but Anke and Rita were amused and we had a good laugh. That was hardly two weeks ago. Now I’m sitting in a beautiful lodge room looking out at what would be Mount McKinley (or Denali), the highest mountain in North America, if the clouds and fog and rain would clear away.
Similarities between the Love Parade and the Loveboat:
Many, many people all on one spot hoping to experience the same things.
Differences:
Most everything else. The Love Parade is a festival that originated in Berlin in 1989. It originated as a political demonstration around the same time as many other peaceful demonstrations were going on against the Wall and the communist era. It’s basically a big, gigantic, techno rave party in the streets and in the clubs. It goes on all weekend and exhibitionism is not uncommon. I know that Berlin has not hosted the Love Parade the last couple of years because it caused too many problems and too much mess and too many damages and too expensive to clean up. This year Dortmund had agreed to take it on…but as I experienced it, it caused havoc. Apparently there were 1 600 000 people in attendance. No wonder I had such a hard time getting there!
On the Loveboat though, on the other hand, there are thousands of tourists all trying to get on and get off and buy this or buy that, but it is very well organized and it doesn’t really feel like there all that many people all in one spot. Mind you, we are also seeking out the places that have less people whenever we can.
The Loveboat is actually a Princess Cruise ship. There used to be a tv show here called the Loveboat that was based on the Princess Cruise lines. I remember my parents never letting us watch it and here we were 30 years later, cruising with them. :-) What is unbelievable about these cruise ships is that there are so many of them, at least doing the Alaska run. At each port we were in, there were 5 huge cruise ships docked, each carrying at least 2,000 passengers. And this happens pretty much every day from mid-May to mid-September. Where do all these people come from? How can so many people afford this? There were people we met who have been on hundreds of cruises and several who have done the Alaska cruise more than once. I’m having a hard time imagining it. It’s not my preferred way of travelling, yet it was just the right thing for our purposes.
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