Now for the last Fasching event, and the biggest one. Like New Orleans, Köln (Cologne) is the largest city with the largest party. And also like New Orleans things that happen in Koln, are not normal nor do they happen outside of Fasching week.
Hotels are a premium in Koln during this week. So the available room was not a NORMAL hotel room. I wish we had a picture of the room but alas I was too embarrassed to take one. Let me just say that it was the size of our balloon trailer. And the bathroom was in the hall and shared by others. But Hey, it was 50€ and clean and had free parking.
The room was located in the Turkish part of town so when we asked for directions to a good restaurant we were sent to Doy Doy, a very busy (full) place. We quickly figured out that we were the only Caucasians in the place. Hmmm.
I will write a blog about the foods we have eaten later.
This area had many Dönar shops. (the Turkish sandwich shops). The picture below is for my daughter Cameron. Her middle name is Bey, which is an East Indian honorific, like saying Mr. or Your Majesty.
Monday morning is the start of the Rose parade. No this is nothing like the Pasadena or Portland Rose parade. We eat breakfast and head to the U-Bahn (train) to go downtown and I immediately see the beginnings of what the day holds.
Yes, to my SCA friends, those are Barbarians coming up the escalator.
And on the U-Bahn more costumes.
Now for this next set of photos. . . The Dom or Cathederal for Koln is very famous as the largest one in Germany. Here we have a few costumed folks walking by on the way to the parade route like we are. Keep this pic in mind for later.
You hungry? Here is the Wurst stand, note this is a HUGE skillet hanging over live coals, no propane fire here. Oh and a drink too? Here is how they serve refreshments.
And dessert? These are famous Fasching cakes. . .yes they look like jelly filled donuts to us Americans. They are called Berliners. Those old enough to remember JFK will remember his famous speech in Berlin where he said “Ich Bien Berliner” and everyone laughed because translated it means “I am a jelly donut.” Well here are the Berliners.
We have quite a ways to walk to find a spot to watch the parade. Along the way we start noticing that not only are all the stores closed but the store fronts are boarded up. What? Turns out they do this to save their glass. I start wondering what we are getting into?
On the way, here is how the public looks, seems unlike the USA on Halloween where it’s the kids that mainly dressed up, in Koln it is the adults that are dressed up. Look close and you can see a couple of ladies walking abreast.
Thank goodness there are no walking vendors with those annoying horns and plastic things. BUT there is this guy that walks the parade line with this cool basket wagon that is full of bread.
In Portland they paint a pink line on the roads that are part of the parade route and everyone knows they have to sit behind that line. And many people bring their chairs or blankets and set up their piece of land.
Wellllllll in Koln you stand the whole time because there is not room to sit. There is no pink line. In this picture about 60% of the parade has already past. Look to the right corner I put a big green arrow where there is a concrete block thing and a girl is standing on it. Well there are 8 of those blocks around a fountain. When we first got to this spot there was only one other person on a block. So I stood on the next one. Time. . .10:30am. Jerry & Manfred were approx 3 ft. in front of me. Little did I know that I would be standing there for 4 hours and as time went by Jerry & Manfred got shuffled away from me and ended up about 15 ft down the road.
Now for the parade.
Each village/town has their own Fasching club. They choose a color to make their costumes in each year. They have their own bands (all town folk, since in the high schools there are no music/band/orchestra/choir). And dance teams. They build their own floats and many of them are political. Way more political than any in our parades.
Let’s start with giants.
And here is one of 100 clubs. You can see the theme costume/color is blue & white. They have a big wagon that has the club officers on it. And they throw candy.
I’m not talking about those little Jolly Rancher size candies, we are getting pelted with BOXES of candy. Chocolate bars, full size. Packages of gummi bears.
And here you can see the parade over on the far left and how crowded the spectator area is. And yes those are umbrellas that people use to catch the candy. I was very lucky to catch some. But most of it hit my hand and fell to the ground where the people around me bent over and grabbed it. I could not get down off my perch without getting hurt.
By this time 12 noon Jerry and Manfred had been shoved out in front and was about 7 ft in front of me with many people between us. Some lady climbed up on my perch and did not speak English (or pretended not to) and would practically bump me off when she would reach for the candy. I didn’t give up my piece of land.
Candy cannon followed by a float.
And now for the dancers. These guys carried girls on their shoulders for sections of the parades then tossed the girls up in the air. Remember there is no line on the road to remind the folks to stand back. They crowd into the line of traffic all the time. I will post the video in the next blog
A few more floats.
Anyone get the joke on the last one. .? The Voice.
And this one?
They have no problem making jokes about America and Obama.
And this one is a joke on the NSA showing Obama being a goal watcher.
Back to some costumes cause you know that's what I'm all about.
Have you stayed with me so far? I stayed on that block of cement for 4 hours. No leaving for any potty break, it cost 50cents to use the one in Dunkin Donuts. No getting down to catch candy, no water breaks. I was a good soldier and stayed at my post. But it was time to find food. We all gathered together and made our exit plans.
HEY. . . NOW IS THE TIME TO REMEMBER THAT FIRST PICTURE WITH THE CATHEDRAL.
When we got back to the Cathedral this is what we found.
The place was a mess, broken bottles everywhere so much so we were walking on glass and sticky beer/alcohol. They shut off the fountain and board it up because of the drunks. And if you look close at one of the cathedral pictures, the one that shows a door to the Cathedral in the background, you will see a guy peeing on the door. THAT IS NOT WHY I
TOOK THE PICTURE! I only saw it after I previewed it. But it was something we were seeing all over the place. And let me say that at this point it was only 4pm in the afternoon.
As much as we liked the whole costume, Parade, Music, Floats part of the Rose Parade, the behavior of the young folks really turned us off.
I leave you with a picture of the loot we scored from the candy throwing!
I will attach video in the next blog.
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