Tuesday 8 March 2011

Going to Karneval!



We took the opportunity of Michael's visit to go to Cologne for the Carnival, or as they write it Karneval. Normally, this blog is all about Bavaria, but this was an understandable exception.












So here we are waiting for the Geisterzug (ghost parade). The way it was explained to me was that the big parade on Rosenmontag was cancelled in 1991 because of the first Gulf War. The people were so upset by this that they had an impromptu parade dressed as zombies and ghosts. Since then, it's become a part of the week's festivities, and we luckily got there just in time to watch it.












On the way home on the first night, we found drummers in the underground. You can see Michael dancing in the hamburger hat behind the others.







The best photo of the Cathedral had Michael in front of it. Nice, eh? We really were fortunate with the sunshine while we were in Cologne.









Had to show this, because I love the perspective of the clowns both in the foreground and the background. These guys had to walk so many hours in these cooking costumes. Certainly working for a higher cause.













This sad clown was included, because he so seriously wasn't feeling it this day. Must've been too many Kölsch beers the night before. Or that morning.

















Really not sure what this is all about, but the German talks about a duet. So it's papier-mâché French and German sausage rolling on the ground with one another, and I assume it's symbolic for cultural understanding. We saw some odd things during Carnival, but this might've won the weirdness contest.







Michael loves hippos, so here he is in front a hippo float. You should've seen his smile when this one came round the corner.







Took quite a few photos of the exterior of the cathedral, but this one from inside was the one I liked the most. We learned plenty about the history of the site and the development from a relatively simple church to one of the most famous structure's in the world. Here's some information if you're interested: Cologne Cathedral.












Michael with the bells of the Cologne Catherdral. There were cards that we could've purchased that proved we made it this far, but this photo seems to have done the same thing. We were there. #Winning.







After all of the faux hedonism over the weekend, it was nice to see a statue of Pan. This was my favourite photo of the trip.

2 comments:

  1. The perspective of the stained-glass window photo is really cool.

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  2. Super cool train...cathedral is stunning...parade people are awesome...

    ReplyDelete