I will never do justice to what we just saw. It actually brought a few tears to my eyes and
these few pictures can't come close to telling the story! At least 60 horse drawn
carriages streamed past us twice tonight. These few, terrible pictures caught a few of them
in Leidesplien [an area about 3 miles from where we are staying]. About 1.5 hours later we were privileged to see the entire parade below our window at the Krasnapolsky. Every carriage was carrying at least 2 people and many were hosting as many as 6 or 8. There were single hose carriages and there were 4 horses drawing some. There were Clydesdales and Palominos and God only knows what other types of horses and there was a common theme among the passengers, they were all wearing their finest clothes -from 100 years ago! Tops hats, Straw hats, Bonnets and scarves... Oil lanterns, Tuxedos and cashmere blankets... I can not tell you how much of a privilege it was to see these fine people and their fine clothes, carriages and their fine horses. The people lining the streets were equally enthralled. The freaks and the tourists, the cyclists and the stoners, all stopped everything and applauded and even whistled. Flashes were going off and the world stopped turning for a few minutes and relived an era gone by. In the middle of an insane human parade came a moment of sublime relief in a form as foreign to us as it was familiar to our great grandparents....
 |