– 19th eurozone nation –
London was the latest major European city to welcome the New Year, its skyline illuminated by a thunderous 11-minute firework display in front of over 100,000 ticket holders gathered on the banks of the River Thames.
Further north, Edinburgh held its traditional Hogmanay street party although celebrations at the nearby Stirling Castle’s were cancelled due to high winds.
In Paris, the Champs-Elysees was closed off to traffic to allow pedestrians to watch a visual spectacle projected onto the Arc de Triomphe before a huge firework display greeted the New Year.
Tens of thousands of people gathered near the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin to watch a huge fireworks display and free concert featuring “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff.
“The Hoff” had the crowd singing along to “Looking for Freedom”, the song he performed 25 years ago as the Berlin Wall fell.
Roughly 20,000 people packed Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square to ring in 2015, gobbling a grape on each of the 12 chimes of the clock at midnight for 12 months of good luck.
It was a particularly significant night for Lithuania, where leaders withdrew their first euro notes from a Vilnius bank machine after it became the 19th country to adopt the single currency.
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