Karneval

Mid-February is the climax of the Karneval season in Germany. It starts on the 11th of November at 11:11 and is immediately suspended until after Advent but it only really gets going in the final week. The Köln and Düsseldorf region is the main area of Karneval in Germany and despite it not being an official holiday most businesses are closed for several days.
I had been repeatedly warned that the whole area goes totally 'crazy' and 'descends into chaos' at this time, drinking, singing, dancing, dressing-up and going to parades etc. This sounded to me like the most cringe-inducing, organised 'fun' and a microcosm of everything I hate. It turns out that I'm not alone and many locals choose to escape on holidays. However one must not judge (well, not before trying it) and so I decided to go with Michael (a local and veteran Karneval goer), Aris, Karen and Ralph to the biggest parade in Köln on Rosenmontag.

Our plans were nearly scuppered when we were given observing time over the weekend but we organised around it. As it happened it snowed almost the entire time and so we could not observe due to snow sticking to the dish. Ralph and I nearly got stuck at the telescope and had to drive through deep, drifting snow back to Bonn.
On the Monday Michael (dressed as a clown) hobbled into the station having slipped on ice and hurt his ankle. Despite the pain he still wanted to go and see the parade. Karen had painted her face but Aris, Ralph and I remained steadfastly undecorated.

The train was full of people dressed up and Köln was thronging with costumed Germans shouting "Kölle Alaaf!", the traditional local-dialect greeting at this time. We made our way to the parade route and joined the crowd. The parade had tens of floats (often with political themes), marching bands etc. From the floats people were throwing candy and flowers into the crowd, the crowd egged them on by shouting for more. Everyone was drinking, singing (to truly awful marching band music), eating candy and enjoying themselves immensely. The crowd was also very well behaved (as drunken mobs go) and there were plenty of families.

After the parade we had some beers in bar nearby and listened to some more bad music before getting an U-Bahn back to Bad Godesberg. It was a rather sorry sight seeing Michael limping back home in his clown costume.
In the end I think the 'craziness' that I had been warned about was much over exaggerated. It was really just a few days of carnival and partying, the only thing that makes it crazy is that it's in Germany. Of course the next day everyone was back to studiously ignoring each other. I'm glad I went but I'm not sure I'll be back next year.

Christmas

A couple of weeks after the Cardiff trip Mum and Dad came over to visit me and do a bit of shopping at the famous weihnachtsmarkts in the region. My flat was not really in a state suitable to have guests but luckily Pickfords had eventually found and delivered my mattress so they has somewhere to sleep. We went to the weihnachtsmarkts in Köln, Bonn and the little one in Bad Godesberg. There are several in Köln and we went to the main three. They were huge and so busy that you could hardly move. The one in Bonn was our favourite, large enough to have everything but not nearly so busy.
I had a couple of weeks off over Christmas. I had planed on driving back in time for Mum and Dad's party. Nick was visiting which was nice because I hadn't been able to see him when I visited Cardiff. Despite the snow I made it to Calais in good time. I then spent four hours waiting to board a train. The knock on effect of the Eurostar failures had thrown the Eurotunnel car service into chaos and they didn't seem to have any extra staff to deal with the backlog.
When I made it to the UK it took me another six hours just to get to Oxford. There seemed to be no good reason for the problem. It wasn't snowing, there was very little snow on the ground and it was warm enough that ice wasn't a problem. Despite the mild conditions I spent 90 mins on the M40 in first gear at one stage. I eventually arrived at 2300 just as everyone was leaving! AJ had to abandon his car and walk home having spent seven hours to go a mile.

We had the big family Christmas as usual. Things seemed little rushed this year because we've all been very busy, particularly Mum and Dad who have had major work done to the house. We were ready by Christmas day, just!
For the new year break Nick and Ceri had organised a rental cottage near Malmesbury. Doug was there as well as Lynsey and Andy, who I hadn't met before. We had a very nice time just eating, drinking, playing games and visiting the very good local pub. It was a very relaxing week and just what I needed.
I managed to get out of the UK just before the real snow arrived and brought the country to a standstill. Thankfully my trip home was much easier than my trip to the UK.