I decided to visit Cologne instead of Düsseldorf and Mainz, which luckily turned out to be the best choice since Carnival parades in the other 2 towns were cancelled due to extreme weather conditions.
Despite fears and negative media reports about the New Year incident at the Cologne Central Station, people still flocked to Cologne in droves. The overall atmosphere was great!
Here are the top 10 pictures taken during the Carnival in Cologne:
Colourful, decorated, clown floats during Carnival, of course!
In between floats there were music-filled processions to liven up the atmosphere.
A man getting a Bützchen (kiss on the cheek) from a lady in exchange for some flowers!
The crowd is continuously showered with abundance of chocolates and sweets. If you have kids, make sure to bring them along to Karneval! They tend to attract the attention of parade participants and receive a lot of goodies :)
There are more colours in Karneval and Cologne than just red and white!
One of the fancy decorated floats. Make sure to cheer loudly so that they will shower you with more goodies!
Germans love their public transport systems so much that they dress up as trams and ticket machines!
Karneval is not only about dressing up in fancy suits, it's also to drive a message to the crowd. Partner sharing, anyone? ;)
Tongue-in-cheek floats that poke fun at hot topics in Germany.
Some floats are even "pulled" by horses (or Pegasi in this case).
Next year, don a costume, make your way to Cologne, bring a bag to collect free candies/chocolates and enjoy some Kölsch beer during Karneval!
Köln Alaaf!
