Carnival!

This past few weeks we've been trotting around the globe. I won a scholarship to do some research in Germany with one of the industrial supporters of my research, and Mary tagged along. We spent the first two weeks of our trip in Germany along the Rhine in Leverkusen, a smallish industrial town nearby Cologne, Bonn, and Dusseldorf. We didn't know it when we booked our trip, but we were going to be in Cologne over Carnival, the heart of the pre-lent celebrations in the more Catholic part of Germany. In Cologne this takes the form of massive street parades and public shenanigans. It's like 6 full days of Halloween, except more exciting because EVERYONE takes part. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.





















Our costumes, picked up at the last minute.



Cologne has the reputation of being Germany's San Francisco.



Aging hippies on a float.



The police on their horses were standing here for a little while waiting to clear a path for the parade. This horse and cow played out a little drama while the horse tried to get into the cow's feed bag.



The museum with all the Warhol art had a section of the School Parade on Sunday.



Nike and her husband Timo came down from Hamburg to party with us for a night. Hurray for public drunkenness!



Many of the parade floats were politically themed. Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour?



There were several with an anti-nuclear bent, but this was my favourite.









It was great seeing all this ridiculous hooliganism right out front of the massive cathedral that dominates the city. I'm sure that the church authorities here have a long history of being just thrilled about the situation.



During the parades the guys throw out tons of candy when children yell "CARMELA!!" This guy behind Mary was right next to the kids yelling CARMELA with all his might. He was literally stealing candy from children. It was great.



This is our haul.